Deadly Secrets
by forensicfreak14
Summary: When the new lab tech joins the night shift crew,a deep secret of hers turns deadly.
1. Welcome

For those out there who enjoy CSI:

I thought that it would be fun to write my own CSI fic. And I'm also going to give my best attempt at making this a case that has to be solved. Whatever I come up with though, I hope you like it. R&R please!

************************************************************************

Chapter 1

            Walking toward the front doors of the Las Vegas Criminalistics building, I saw a tall, very slender, blue-eyed brunette walking my way. Reaching the doors, an officer opened one for me.

            "Thank you, sir," I said as I walked in.

            Oh, and about the woman I saw; that would be me, Cristina Miltadez.

            I was starting my first night here. I am to be working as part of the Graveyard Shift, so appropriately named. Most people that come in usually end up in a grave because, oh yeah, they're already dead. It's our job to find out how they died and who killed them.

            But first it would help if I had and identification badge and an area to work in. So I went straight to the front desk to see if someone there could tell me where to go.

            "May I help you miss?" the woman at the front asked me.

            "Um, yes. My name is Cristina Miltadez; this is my first night here. I was wondering where I have to go to get my i.d. badge," I replied.

            Looking at a note posted next to her computer, she spoke to me again: "Oh yes, Miss Miltadez; we've been expecting you. Please follow me this way."

            Getting away from her computer, she led me down a short hallway and into a small room with a few tables, chairs, a computer, and the same kind of camera that they use for school pictures.

            She then handed me a clipboard with two sheets of paper clipped to it and said, "Now if you will just fill everything out that applies to you, then I can get a badge for you. I'll be back in five minutes to see if you're done then."

            And with that she left me to fill out the paperwork. And she was back, exactly five minutes later. I then handed her the clipboard as she sat next to me to check everything.

            "Perfect. You just forgot to write in your marital status," she said to me, pointing to the only blank I had left.

            "I'm sorry; I just didn't know what to put. I didn't know if you'd want 'single' or 'unmarried'," I replied.

            "Single will be just fine," she said, laughing at what I said as she wrote in 'single'. "Be grateful you aren't married either."

            "Why is that?" I asked.

            "Because those of us who are never get to see their families for the most part," she replied, showing me her family picture in her wallet.

            "Oh, I'm so sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say.

            "Don't worry about it. My family understands that it's our job to put the bastards in jail who would otherwise harm people," she replied, standing up and walking over to the computer.

            She then sat down and began typing in everything that I had filled out. Soon enough, she called me over to stand in front of the camera so she could get my picture for my badge.

            Within a few minutes, I had my i.d. badge and was ready to work, as soon as I found out where I was to go.

            "I'm sure that you would like to know where you are to work. So please, follow me," she said to me as she began to walk down a long hallway.

            Following her, I noticed something about most of the rooms: the walls were made of glass. Meaning, you could see what everyone was working on at any given time. I thought that was pretty cool. There were some rooms though that had at least one normal, solid wall. I kept wondering where I was going to be working.

            We then turned right into another hallway. I finally started seeing some rooms without the glass walls. She stopped right in font of one and knocked on the open door.

            "Yes?" I heard someone say from inside.

            "Mr. Grissom? Miss Miltadez is here now." she said.

            "Please, send her in. Thank you," he replied.

            "Go right on in Miss Miltadez," she said to me as I walked in.

            I stood in front of a very cluttered desk; stacks of papers were everywhere. Looking around the room, I saw many samples of bugs in jars, glass cases, and even living ones in what, at some point, was a fish tank.

            "_Please dear God don't tell me I'm working in this room,_" I thought to myself as the chair behind the desk spun around.

            "Ah, you must be Cristina Miltadez. We're glad to have you on our team. I'm the night shift supervisor, as well as your, for lack of a better term, boss; Gil Grissom. Please have a seat," he said to me.

            So I did, I sat down, still rather uncomfortable about being in a room filled with bugs, living and dead.

            "So, what made you come here?" he asked me once I had been seated in front of him.

            "Well, it's quite an interesting story......................."


	2. The Newbie

A.N.) I can't believe that I actually got a review without telling anyone about this. What can I say other than "Wow and thanks!" Means a lot to me, it really does. So, keep R&R, and I'll keep writing.

                                                FF14

************************************************************************

Chapter 2

            "Well, it's quite an interesting story......................."

            "Good, some excitement is needed right now."

            "Alright then. After I finished college, I came here, to Vegas, and applied for a job as a lab technician. But somehow the FBI ended up with my application, so they called me up after I had been living here for a year. During that year I had been working in various small clinics, doing lousy, small tasks, such as blood work and what not. Which all explains why I was stuck living in a cheap, but not quite run-down, apartment. So anyway; the FBI calls me up, says I'm to move up to D.C. and take the lab tech job they had open there. They were willing to pay a large amount and promised that it was a decent job. So I went up there. For the following two years I worked for them, testing DNA and trace samples and everything. Oh yeah, I loved what I was doing, but when they started making me do things like get their coffee and then yell at me for not working; I left. I wasn't about to put up with their shit! So then I came back down here, and here I am, where I had wanted to be before."

            "That was quite interesting. So what do you think about our wonderful federal agents now?" he asked me, showing a slight grin.

            "What do I think? I think they are a bunch of low-down crooks themselves, taking all the credit for the cases that _I_ solved while they sat at their desks drinking coffee. In simplest terms; they are a bunch of pompous jack-asses that can rot in hell for all I care!" I exclaimed, jumping up out of my seat.

            "Well then, that proved that you'll fit in perfectly with our night crew. It's no secret; the FBI agents hate us, and we hate them even more. I welcome you," he replied, showing no emotion to my outburst other than a simple, yet small, smile.

            "I'm sorry about that, I just got a little carried away," I said, still standing.

            "Don't worry about it. Now that that's taken care of, I'll introduce you to everyone," Grissom said to me, walking to the door.

            Walking down the other end of that hallway, he stopped in front of a room with one glass wall.

            Looking inside the room, I saw pictures of blood spatter patterns and the various weapons that caused them.

            "So, I'm guessing that this is our newbie here," a woman said, coming out of the room.

            "Yes, this is her. Cristina Miltadez, I'd like you to meet Catherine Willows," he said to the two of us.

            We shook hands before she said, "I see you've noticed the pictures I keep in here. Blood spatter analysis, that's my specialty. And, as if you haven't noticed, Grissom's area is entomology (A.N. the study of insects.) Glad to have you with us."

            As Catherine walked back into her room, Grissom continued to show me around. The next room we stopped at was full of t.v. and computer screens, as well as audio equipment. Two men were standing just inside the doorway. They turned to face us as Grissom knocked on one of the glass walls.

            "And who have we here?" the tall, well-built guy asked, looking me over.

            "Nick Stokes, meet Cristina Miltadez," Grissom said, indicating the one who had just spoken to me.

            I shook his hand. Then I shook the hand of the tall, black man next to Nick.

            "And this is Warrick Brown, who works in this room."

            "So, what brings you to wonderful Vegas?" Warrick asked me.

            "If you really want to know; a bunch of pompous-jackasses that work for the FBI," I replied, grinning at Nick and Warrick.

            "Nick, shouldn't you be getting back to work?" Grissom asked him.

            "Yeah, I know," he replied. "I do hair and fiber analysis, so I'm just a few rooms down, if you need me," he added, though speaking to me.

            "I'll be sure to remember that," I replied, rolling my eyes as he walked away.

            "And as you already know, I work here, with the audio/visual evidence. Nice meeting you Cristina," Warrick said to me.

            As Grissom and I began to walk down the long glass hallway, I just barely heard Warrick comment to someone: "Damn! Our newbie is hot as hell!"

            I just smiled and kept walking down the hallway.

            But we didn't walk far. We stopped at a room with all glass walls. There was a woman working inside. She looked up from a microscope, smiled at us, and came over to the door.

            "Sara Sidle, this is our new lab tech, Cristina Miltadez."

            "Hey. It's nice to have another girl around here. Cath and I were getting kinda lonely," she said to me as we shook hands. "I work with material evidence, so I may be seeing you around fairly often. Welcome to the night shift."

            We were about to leave when someone walked up to us: "Ah, this must be our new tech."

            "Hello Al. Yes, this is her. Cristina Miltadez, please meet Doc Robbins, our chief medical examiner."

            "Pleased to meet you sir," I said, also shaking his hand.

            "Well, I best be going. I'm on my way to drop off this hair sample to Nick," Doc Robbins said to me as he walked off.

            Continuing to walk, we stopped yet again.

            "_I may not do anything until day shift it seems. Just how many people am I going to be working with?" I said to myself._

            "Cristina Miltadez, this is Captain Jim Brass; he's in charge of the city's Homicide Division."

            "Hey kid. It's not all that bad working here. After a while you get used to the lack of sleep," Brass said with a small laugh as he too walked on.

            "There's only one person left for you to meet," Grissom said to me, as though he could read my mind.

            We walked up to a glass-walled room not quite in the center of the hallway and stopped. We then walked into the rather large room, which happened to be a very nice lab.

            "_Wow. I really hope this is where I'm working," I thought to myself._

            Looking around, I saw someone at a microscope, their back to us, yet they knew we were in there.

            "If you don't have evidence concerning the Chater case, just put it somewhere on that back counter and I might get to it soon."

            "Greg, get up and come meet your new lab partner," Grissom said to him.

            Greg, as his name happens to be, got off of the stool he was on and walked over to us, though for some reason, he was looking at the ground. As soon as he was standing in front of us, he straightened up, causing his neck to pop.

            "That feels so much better," he said, looking up at the ceiling.

            Then he looked at us, his smile becoming blank from lack of expression.

            "Greg Sanders, meet your new lab partner, Cristina Miltadez," Grissom said.

            "Oh.......my........God........"


	3. New Partners

A.N.) Thanks to all of you who have been reading this. I owe you. You make me want to keep writing, so I will! And I'm sorry if some of the descriptions of people are wrong, every picture I have looked at showed exactly what I wrote, and CSI doesn't come on until tonight, but I don't want to wait and the WUSA All-Star game is on at the same time, so I'll have to tape CSI and watch it later.

            'With a scientific third degree, the master criminalist makes the physical evidence talk, wringing confessions from blood, guns, narcotics, hair, fibers, metal slivers, tire marks, tool marks, and bullets.

                                                -Jack Webb'

I like that quote. It's a forensic thing.

************************************************************************

Chapter 3

            "_Oh.......my........God........" I said to myself as I stared at Greg while he stared at me._

            I was looking at a tall, dirty-blonde, spiky-hair, brown-eyed, very hot guy.

            Something finally clicked in my head at that moment.

             "Hi! I guess this means I'll be working with you," I said, quickly offering my hand.

            He too snapped out of his trance and took my hand: "Oh yeah, sorry. I guess I've been working too long.

            "Well, I'll let you two get to work now. Greg, show her around the lab, will you?" Grissom said to us as we just stood there still staring at each other.

            "Yeah, sure thing Gris," Greg said, finally letting go of my hand.

            With that said, Grissom walked out of our lab and back to his office.

            "So, uh, Cristina, where did you use to work at before you came here?" Greg asked me, rather nervously.

            "Well, I used to work for the feds in D.C.; but they turned out to be just a bunch of jack-asses who took all the credit for the cases _I solved. And that's about it. So how long have you worked here Greg?"_

            "I've uh, worked here for about a year now," he replied, finally blinking.

            "So would you like to show me around now?" I asked, looking around the lab.

            "Sorry, yeah, that would be helpful," he said as he began showing me where everything was located in our lab.

            He showed me everything, including where all of the electrophoresis took place, which was great, I love doing the gel electrophoresis. I immediately noticed the mass spectrometer though; I mean, you can't miss those, they're huge! And the split screen microscopes; wow, I was just amazed at all this top-of-the-line equipment.

            Greg could see the look of amazement in my eyes.

            "Pretty neat stuff huh? Yeah, I've been working with all of it for a year now. If ya need any help, just ask me," he said to me as I finished looking at the slides under the microscope he had been at.

            My very long hair was down at that point. I knew that I'd have to put it up in a braid or a bun or something like that since I would be working in a lab.

            I just hadn't yet. I mean, if anything can turn heads, it's my long hair.

            So I looked up from the microscope and just stared out of one of the glass walls, smiling. I then turned around so fast that my hair whipped across his face before it came to rest on my back again.

            Then, as if I hadn't already gotten his attention, I grabbed the neck of the shirt he was wearing with one finger and pulled him closer to me.

            My face was mere centimeters from his. I just stared into his eyes, giving him one of my famous smiles the whole time. He has to be about 5'10 or so, because I had to look up at him since I'm a small 5'4.

            Greg just kept staring at me, not blinking as though I would disappear if he did.

            Moving my face slightly closer to his, I said to him, "I've been working with this kind of equipment for the past two years. I'm a big girl now. I think I can handle 'heavy machinery'. Thanks for offering your help though."

            Then, just as suddenly as I had pulled him to me, I gave him a gentle, friendly push away.

            "So Greg, what's this case you're working on?" I asked him, grinning.

            "Huh? What? Oh.......the case, sorry, uh yeah......." he replied, coming back to reality and sitting in a rolling chair.

            I did the same.

            "Well, here's what happened and here's what the evidence says.........." Greg began.

************************************************************************

            Greg explained the case to me for the next three hours, constantly looking up from the case folder to look at me. I was quite flattered.

            "We've almost got this case solved," he said to me, closing the folder and looking at me. "The only problem we have is with this new piece of evidence that was brought in today," he added, rolling over to the microscope he had been at before I came in.

            He began looking at the slides again.

            "I just don't understand what I'm missing," he said, not looking up from his work.

            "Mind if I take a look?" I asked as I rolled my chair next to his.

            "Go ahead, maybe you can see something I don't, but I doubt that," Greg replied as I looked in one side while he looked in the other.

            I quite enjoyed that, and I'm sure he did too. I mean, come on! Our heads were touching since we were looking through the same microscope.

            Chills ran up my spine as Greg pulled my hair to the other side of my neck, thus causing him to brush his hand across the skin of my neck.

            I looked up briefly to see him smiling.

            Then I was back at work. I noticed a very minute speck of something on the piece of carpet fiber we were looking at.

            "Greg, could you run this under a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)? Pay close attention to a tiny black speck that should show up," I said, backing away.

            "Yeah sure, I'll see what comes up," he said, taking the slide out and walking out the door to the room across the hall.

************************************************************************

            An hour later, the case was solved.

            "Good job Cristina and Greg. The two of you helped solve this case in no time," Grissom said to us after the accused was sent to prison for life.

            Little did anyone know that a new case would be starting soon. And it would be bad. Real bad.

************************************************************************

A.N.) Ha! So, how was that? I am considered mean yet for just leaving you all hanging? Huh? Yeah, I hope you enjoyed it.

By the way, if you don't know already, there are three CSI books out: 'Cold Burn', 'Sin City', and 'Double Dealer'. They are very good books. I own all three and have read each one twice.

But if you are looking for true forensic cases and techniques, then I most definitely suggest that you read 'Bodies of Evidence' and 'The Forensic Casebook.' Both of those books are found in The Discovery Channel Store. They are really worth reading if you plan to go into forensics one day.

So, enjoy!


	4. Late Surprises

A.N.) Hey! Thanks for all of the reviews! Truly is what keeps me going. As always, R&R and please spread the word!

            'When two objects come into contact, there is a material exchange, from each to the other.

                                                -Edmund Locard, 1910

                                                Father of Forensic Science

Dude, if it wasn't for that guy, there would be no forensics. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! That would so kill me!!! That means that there would be no CSI and..........no Greg Sanders. *drops dead*

But, thankfully, forensics does exist and so does CSI (as well as Greg Sanders ^_^). So, we're all happy. 

Oh yeah. And if it takes me a while to post some more chapters, sorry. I'm gonna be reading the 5th Harry Potter book AND I still have to finish my damn summer reading. As if being in high school isn't hard enough........alright, enough talking from me.........

************************************************************************

Chapter 4

            The rest of the night shift was slow. No new cases, no evidence to look over; nothing.

            There was no reason for everyone to hang around and do nothing. So, Grissom gave us the rest of the shift off.

            After putting my lab coat into my locker, I walked out only to be greeted by Nick, Warrick, and Greg.

            "Hey guys," I said, smiling at them as we began to walk toward the front of the building.

            "Nice work on the Chater case tonight Cristina," Nick said to me, trying to put an arm around my neck, but I slipped under his arm and walked behind the guys.

            "Yeah, not bad at all for a newbie," Warrick said to me, turning around and grinning as well.

            "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I parked in the front lot," I said, walking a little faster so I could get ahead of them.

            "I'm in the back lot," Nick and Warrick said in unison.

            "I'll see the two of you tomorrow then," I said as they walked off. "And where might you be going?" I asked Greg, who was still walking with me.

            "I'm parked in the front too," he replied.

            So I walked up to the front lot with him, talking at the same time.

            "So how did you notice that black speck on the carpet fiber we were looking at?" Greg asked me.

            "If you really want to know, then I'll tell you. I notice things like that because I have a tendency to see things that don't belong. Other than that, I don't really know how I notice things like that," I replied as we reached the front of the building.

            "So uh, where's your car?" he asked me.

            We stopped as soon as we got outside to the well-lit parking lot.

            "Um, actually, I caught a cab here. Since I worked near my apartment in D.C., I didn't have a reason to have a car. Besides, the feds didn't pay as much as they had promised, so most of my pay went to my apartment. That's why I don't have a car," I replied, blushing and looking down at the ground.

            "Well, if you'd like, I'll give you a ride. Just tell me where to go and I'll take you there," Greg said to me.

            "Really? You'd really do that for me? Wow! Thanks a lot Greg!" I exclaimed as I kissed his cheek.

            Blushing like crazy, he led me to his car: a midnight blue Tahoe (A.N. you know, like what all the others drive in the show, except that instead of black, I made his blue. Yeah, can't think of anything else, so go with me on this.)

            Getting into his car, he started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

            "So, where will I be taking you Cristina?" Greg asked me.

            "Um, to my living area would be nice," I said sarcastically.

            "Other than the obvious. I mean where's your apartment?" he replied.

            "Actually, I'm staying at a hotel right now. At least until I can find an apartment complex that isn't run-down and full of druggies but is low rent," I said, turning to look out the passenger side window, feeling quite embarrassed.

            "Oh, well uh, just tell me how to get there and I'll get you there," Greg replied.

            Turning back to look at him, I smiled and said, "Thanks Greg."

************************************************************************

            Twenty minutes later, we reached the hotel I was staying at.

            "Uh, Cristina?" Greg said as I began to get out of his car.

            "Yeah?"

            "There's an extra room in my apartment if you, you know, wanted a place to stay. It's got a bed and everything. And you wouldn't have to take a cab everyday," Greg said to me, blushing again.

            "_God, does that boy blush or what?" I said to myself._

            "Thanks, and I'll think about that," I replied, getting out and walking to the front doors after he gave me his address.

            I noticed that he didn't drive off until I was inside.

            "_How sweet. It's as if he's looking out for me," I thought, smiling to myself._

            Finally reaching my room, I slid the key card through and walked in. I closed the door behind me and locked it.

            I fell back onto my bed while thoughts went through my head.

            "_Today wasn't such a bad day. I do believe that I'll enjoy working here so much more than I did in D.C. Everyone seems so nice, mostly the guys of course. And, wow, Greg is just amazing! Guys don't get any hotter than him! Damn I hope he's single! But he's so attractive; I bet he has to beat girls off of him," I said to no one as my cell phone began to ring._

            "I wonder who that could be?" I said, not having a clue who would be calling at this hour.

            "Miltadez."

            "I know where you are," a digitally altered voice said from the other end.

            "Who the hell are you?!" I screamed into the phone.

            "Run. Run if you want. But you can never get away from me," the voice replied.

            "Why can't you just leave me alone?!" I yelled.

            "*evil laughter on other end of phone.*"

            "Why are you doing this?" I said, looking around everywhere.

            "I haven't done anything, yet. Just wait and see.......*more evil laughter*"

            After hearing that laughing, I hung up and grabbed my stuff. I hadn't unpacked yet, seeing as how I really couldn't.

            I was terrified. I had a stalker after me and had nowhere to go.

            But then I thought about it: Greg had offered me that extra room in his apartment. Maybe he could help me.

            So, grabbing my stuff, I ran out of my room, checked out of the hotel, and went to call a cab.

************************************************************************

            "_According to what he wrote, this is his apartment, however nice this building is," I said to myself as I knocked loudly on the door of his apartment._

            A few minutes later, I heard someone turning the doorknob. The next thing I knew, I was face-to-face with Greg.

            Only, he definitely looked different from when I last saw him, which had been two hours before.

            I just stood there and stared at him: he was standing at his door wearing khaki pants.

            Not a big deal, right?

            Well, he also didn't have a shirt on; he was holding it in his left hand. I have no idea what he does in his spare time, but.........DAMN!!!! Oh my God does he have a sexy chest!

            I just kept standing there staring at him before he finally said something: "Hey Cristina, are you here? Earth to Cristina......Hello?

            He stared waving a hand in front of my face before he realized why I was staring at him.

            "Oh, sorry, didn't have time to put this on," he said as he put his shirt on.

            I finally blinked myself back to reality.

            "Sorry about that Greg. Um, may I come in?" I asked as he stepped back, allowing me to come in.

            "So, what brings you here at this hour Cristina?" Greg asked me as he sat down at a table in the kitchen.

            I too sat down at the table.

            "Well, I've decided to take you up on your offer, if it's still good," I replied, smiling a little, even though I was still terrified from earlier events.

            "Yeah! Sure my offer's still good! Here, I'll show you to your new room!" he exclaimed, jumping up so quickly that he knocked his chair over.

            "_My aren't we excited?" I thought to myself, sarcastically. "_Who knew that coming over here could cause such excitement?_"_

            Showing me around my new home, I realized just how big his apartment is. Which explains why he invited me to stay with him.

            He then took me into a fairly large room, complete with bed, nightstand, dresser, closet, and a full bathroom.

            I just stood there. I didn't know what to say.

            "So, what do you think of your room?" Greg asked me, smiling because he could tell I was happy.

            "I.....I don't know what to say. This is so great........thanks a ton Greg!" I replied as I threw my arms around him and gave him a hug.

            He too put his arms around me.

            "_He is so loving this," I thought to myself; smiling._

            Unfortunately, he pulled away, red as can be.

            "_God! Can that boy blush!" I thought to myself, though not being able to hold back a few giggles._

            "I guess you'd like to sleep........so I'll just leave you now," he said, walking out of the room. "And if you need anything, I'm right across the hall," he added, walking into his own room.

            "I'll tell you if I ever need anything," I replied as I said goodnight and closed my door.

            "Well, no use in unpacking. I should try and get as much sleep as I can," I said to myself, walking over to my new bed.

            I at least made myself a little more comfortable by putting on a dark blue tank-top and knee-length black shorts.

            After doing that, I got into bed and, amazingly, fell asleep in no time.

************************************************************************

A.N.) I know, you probably don't want me to talk anymore. You probably want another chapter. And I know you want to know who that caller was. But, like I said earlier, you'll most likely be waiting until I at least get a few more chapters read in the new HP book. It's so addictive!

Oh yeah, one more thing: True, I know that's it's not in Gris' character to give thanks for anything, but rarely it does happen. I've heard it/ read it happen. So, from the last chapter, I'll just say that's what it was. Trust me, it just came from lack of ideas for the end. But thanks for the reminder.


	5. Special Thanks

A.N.) Hello to all of my readers! Sorry if it seems I'm taking forever, but was reading the 5th book. I finished on Monday night. *pissed off about the last 100 pages or so.*

For a friend whose favorite character is lost.......a moment of silence please.......

I didn't want to disappoint you, so I'm still writing, even though I cried through the end of the book and still feel pretty depressed (I'm with ya on this Becca......)

            "With method and logic, one can accomplish anything."

                                                            -Hercule Poirot

And there's your quote for now. And, ah, yes: thank you for all of the reviews and encouragement.

And I owe a special thanks to Kady Rilla Wholi, A Bloom, and Sandersgirl. Your reviews really make me want to keep writing. So thanks, and here's chapter 5.

************************************************************************

Chapter 5

            "Cristina? You up yet? Come on, we gotta leave soon," someone said to me as I still lay in bed sleeping.

            Wait. Why was someone in my hotel room? And why did they know my name?

            So I freaked. I shot straight up out of bed and hit whoever was sitting on the edge, causing them to hit the floor; hard.

            That was before I had realized where I was and who was there with me.

            "Oh, Greg! God, I'm so sorry! I forgot that I was here! Are you ok?" I asked as I got down on the floor to see if he was ok.

            "Yeah.......yeah I'm fine......ah shit," he said as his nose started to bleed.

            Reaching for one of my bags, I pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to him.

            "Here Greg, take this and pinch your nose with it while lying down. That will stop it from bleeding," I said to him.

            But when I said 'while lying down,' I did not mean for him to put his head in my lap. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I was just a little surprised.

            It was kind of funny actually. Here was Greg, his head in my lap, holding his nose to make it stop bleeding, looking up at me while I was just sitting there looking down at him. I don't know, I just thought it was slightly funny.

            A few minutes later, his nose stopped bleeding and he got up and helped me to my feet.

            "I really didn't mean to scare you like that Cristina. I had forgotten that you came here early this morning. So, I guess I got what I deserved," Greg said to me as I grabbed my clothes for the day.

            "I didn't mean to hit you Greg; I'm just a bit jumpy, that's all," I replied as I put my clothes in the bathroom.

            "Well now that I've gotten you up, I guess I should go get ready too," he said, watching me as I walked into the bathroom.

            Turning around to see him before he walked out of my room, I said, "Yeah, I'll see you in thirty."

************************************************************************

            Thirty minutes later, I was clean and dressed for the new 'day.' Walking out of my room, I found Greg waiting for me.

            "Ready to go now?" he asked, the confidence of speaking to me back in his voice.

            "Yeah, I'm ready now," I replied as we walked out of his apartment and made our way to his car.

            Finally we were on our way back to work to start another 'day.'

            "So, what made you come to me so early this morning?" Greg asked me as he drove on.

            "Well, I told you this morning; I had decided to take you up on your offer about the spare room," I replied quickly, not wanting him to know about the call I had received.

            "If that's true, then why were you so nervous when I opened the door? And you were really jumpy this morning too. Did something happen to you?" Greg asked me, showing how concerned he was in his eyes.

            I had a really hard time resisting the look of concern he gave me. And it was really hard lying to him, saying that I was just a little nervous about living with someone else.

            I don't think he believed me, but he said he did.

             Thankfully, we pulled up to the building soon. Getting out of his car, we walked into the building and back to the locker room.

            Completely forgetting about the conversation we'd had not long before, Greg said to me, "So what do you think we'll be doing today, since things have been unusually slow. Though I highly doubt that we'll get to leave early again. That was just luck."

            Grabbing our lab coats, we walked out of the locker room and to our lab, still wondering what we were going to be doing.

            "Hey Sara," I said as we passed her in her lab.

            "Hey guys," she replied, looking up from her work.

            "How's it going?" I asked.

            "Slow, very slow. You two will have the same problem too," she replied, looking back down at whatever she was working on.

            We finally reached our own lab, only to find that we were to look over evidence in very minor cases, such as blood work and what-not.

            Yeah, it was very slow around there. But, none-the-less, we had to get it done.

            "So, what would you like to look over Greg?" I asked, looking at the numerous samples of blood.

            "I'll take the blood work if you want," he replied, looking across the lab at me.

            "Good, I've done one too many blood tests in a short amount of time," I said, taking my first piece of evidence; a cast of a shoe print.

            Twenty minutes later, I was done with the cast, scanned it through SLIP (Shoewear Linking and Identification Program), tagged it, and sent it back to Grissom with the results.

            I then rolled my chair across the lab so see how Greg was coming along. I rolled up next to him; he didn't even notice that I was there.

            "So Greg, how's your work com........."  I started to say, but then I saw something was wrong.

            "Greg! Why are your hands shaking?!" I said, still not getting his attention.

            I hate using force, but I had to. I wanted to know what was wrong with him. Grabbing the back of his chair, I spun him around so he was facing me.

            It was now my turn to be concerned.

            Greg kept sitting there, looking down at his hands, which were still shaking terribly, when a single tear fell down his face.

            "Oh Greg......what's wrong? Please tell me," I said gently, as I moved myself even closer to him and took his hands in mine.

            He slowly looked up at me, hands still shaking in my own grasp. Greg tried to give me a smile.

            "Alright......I'll tell you. Just don't laugh later about it: About a month ago, there was an explosion in a lab near this one. You may have seen one with the glass blown out and 'Caution' tape around it. Well, that would be the one. That used to be the lab I worked in. I was in the explosion, causing me to be in the hospital for a week before I could come back. I'm so afraid of it happening again that my hands always shake now. I had never been so scared before. I just can't stop thinking about it," he said to me, almost silently.

            "I'm so sorry that happened to you Greg," I said to him, squeezing his hands tighter with mine. "If it makes you feel any better, I know exactly how you feel."

            "What do you mean?" he replied.

            "Well, about seven months ago, there too was an explosion at the FBI lab. I was given a black box containing, what I was told at least, a disarmed pipe bomb. Well, I opened the box, and it exploded right in front of me. I was actually quite lucky it didn't kill me; it had been covered with nails and other metal pieces, like most pipe bombs are. Thank God it wasn't as powerful as most are. But it still landed me in the hospital for a month, and I still have this as a reminder," I said, showing Greg the small scar on my right arm. "So yeah, I know what near-death experiences are like."

            "Wow. I never would have imagined that you and I had been through the same thing. I didn't think that anyone knew how I felt," Greg said to me, his hands starting to calm down a little.

            "You didn't?! I had thought the same thing, until now. I actually feel a lot better now that I've told you this," I replied, noticing that his hands had almost completely stopped shaking now. "You can always count on me to listen to you if there's ever a time when you feel like that again, alright Greg?"

            Finally, his shaking stopped.

            "Thanks Cristina. I mean, thanks for helping me with this problem. It was getting in the way of my work, but I think it won't be too bad now. I really owe you for that," Greg said to me, moving closer to me as well.

            "You don't owe me anything. You're letting me live in your apartment with you. I don't think you could do anything better than that for m..........."

            I could no longer speak: Greg had suddenly brought his lips to mine. And I was in heaven. Letting go of his hands, I moved my arms to be around his neck, while he moved his to be around my waist.

            We were really going at it. I mean, forget work, this was so much better! I hardly wanted to stop just to breathe! I have no idea how long we were doing that. All I know is that we got a surprise after a while.

            "Cristina, we got a call. I was wondering if you wanted to go........." I heard someone say, then stop abruptly.

            I jumped up, because at some point I had migrated onto Greg's lap, as Catherine just stood in the doorway and stared at us.

            Blushing like mad, Greg turned back to the blood work he had been working with, trying to pretend as though nothing had happened.

            I just stood there, staring at the ground, feeling like I was a deeper red than a ruby.

            "Um, yeah. Like I was saying, we just got called to a scene. Grissom wants me to take you with me Cristina, if you want to," Catherine said again to me; grinning.

            "Yeah, uh, sure I'll go," I replied, not knowing what else to say. "Uh.......Greg, can you finish the rest of this by yourself?"

            I saw him look up briefly and smile at me. I smiled back, knowing that he had just said yes.

            Catherine had seen that too.

            "Follow me then, I'll need to get you something before we leave."

            Minutes later I had put my lab coat back into my locker, just until I got back. Not long after that, I found myself with a gun in its holster around my waist, not visible under my dark blue jacket with FORENSICS in yellow letters on the back.

            "So why do I have a gun? I wouldn't think I'd need one," I said to Catherine, who just looked at me and smiled as we climbed into a black Tahoe.

            "There have been a few occasions where we, the CSI's, have been attacked by suspects. So we can never be too careful. Since you've been with the FBI for two years, I do believe that you know how to use a gun, right?"

            "I've never had to use one but yes, I do know how."

            "Good. Now let's get to that crime scene."

            Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at an empty parking lot, except for the police cars, another Tahoe, and the crime scene, where we found Warrick waiting for us.

            "Guy in the car, around 26 years of age. No id or anything with him. Took a bullet to the left temple," Warrick told us as we walked over to the car.

            Looking in to see the driver further, I screamed and fell backwards.

            "What's wrong Cristina?" Catherine asked me as I sat on the pavement.

            "I........I know the driver........"

************************************************************************

A.N.) Don't you just hate me now?! I love keeping all of you in suspense! This is just the beginning..........

Oh yeah, I will (in a future chapter) explain more about why she left the FBI, for those of you wanting to know.


	6. Don't Worry

A.N.) So, does everyone hate me now? I'm sorry, I just thought it would be good to end like that.

                        "Data! Data! Data! I can't make bricks without clay."

                                                            -Sherlock Holmes

Not the best quote I have, but it came out of a CSI book, so I put it. Sorry if this chapter's not up to the usual standards, but I didn't have many ideas for this chapter. I really hope you still like it. And thanks for the reviews, they keep me going, as does every episode of CSI (I love Greg!!!!) Anyway, here's your chapter.

************************************************************************

Chapter 6

            "I........I know the driver........"

            I kept repeating that to myself as I sat in the passenger's seat of the Tahoe I came here in.

            I really needed to say something to anyone. So I took out my cell phone and punched in Greg's cell phone number.

            "Sanders."

            "Greg? It's me; I'm still at the scene."

            "Hey Cristina! So what do you think? I mean, being at the actual scene and all."

            "I........I......I'll tell you later. I don't know how much longer I can take it," I said, on the verge of tears.

            "Why? What do you mean? What's wrong? Please tell me what's....." he began, but I cut him off.

            "I.......I can't right now. I just can't. I'll tell you when I get back," I replied, no longer holding back the tears.

            "Cristina, please......" but I didn't hear anymore because I had hung up.

            As soon as I had hung up, Catherine came back and got into the car. We drove away from the scene as soon as the car had started.

            Neither of us said anything for a while. But Catherine finally broke the silence:

            "So, this victim, Travis you said his name was, you knew him?"

            "I did. We were really good friends. Actually, he was the first friend that I had ever made. But I don't understand some things," I replied quietly.

            "And what's that?"

            "First: I don't see why anyone would want to kill him. He's a great guy, no enemies or anything. Second: He's not from Vegas. He's not even from this state."

            At hearing me say that, Catherine slammed on the breaks. We came to a dead stop.

            "What do you mean he's not from this state?"

            "He's not. I don't know where he currently lives, but he came to visit me a week ago. He was sposed to be leaving tonight, but obviously he never made it to his flight," I replied as she pulled out her phone.

            She punched in a number. It didn't even take two rings to be answered:

            "Brown."

            "Warrick, it's Catherine. Just found out something else about our vic. He's not from Nevada."

            "What?"

            "She doesn't know where he resides, but says he came to visit her a week ago and was going to catch his flight tonight."

            "Damn! That means the FBI's gonna get involved!"

            "No, not if we don't tell them. For all we know, our vic may have moved here without telling Cristina. Let's not say anything though until we find out where he's from."

            "Alright. You headed back now?"

            "Yeah; I think our newbie has seen enough for now."

            "I'll be back later, soon as I finish here."

            And with that, they both hung up.

            We didn't say anything else the rest of the trip back.

************************************************************************

            When we finally reached the building, I went straight to the locker room and took off my gun and FORENSICS jacket and put both back into my locker. I took out my lab coat and put it back on as I walked back to the lab.

            Upon reaching the lab, I saw Greg still working at our small, unimportant evidence. I noticed that he had just finished looking at the last bit of it as I walked in.

            "Cristina? I'm glad you're back. What's wrong?" Greg asked, running over to me as I walked in.

            I just broke down again right there in his arms: "God Greg, it's horrible! I can't believe this happened........"

            I then told him about what we had found and that the vic had been a friend of mine.

            Greg pulled me even closer to him and said, "Cristina, don't worry. You and I, as well as the rest of the crew, will track down the lousy bastard that did this. They won't get away. We won't stop until they are behind bars."

            Looking up at him, I gave my best attempt of a smile through my tears. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I thanked him.

            We continued to stand there like that for a while until I had calmed down and my tears stopped.

            "Here's what we're going to do: I'll go down to Doc Robbins and get all the samples he has for us to look at. You just sit here and try to stay calm. Alright?" Greg said to me as he walked me over to my chair and had me sit down. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

            With that said, Greg took off, leaving me alone in our lab, yet I was feeling a little better after talking to him.

            Soon after Greg had left, Sara walked in and came over to me, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

            "I uh, I heard about what happened. I wanted to tell you that we will find out who did this," she said to me as I gave a small smile. "But then again, I guess Greg already said that to you," she added, grinning.

            I felt myself grow hot and looked down: "I guess you know about that too?"

            "Well, when I looked up a little while ago, I happened to see the two of you as close as can be, in public at least. It's not anything to be embarrassed about. Greg's a great guy, not always serious, but maybe that's why he can make friends with everyone, as you obviously discovered."

            Getting up from the chair, Sara walked over to the door to leave.

            Turning around again and smiling, she said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. It's a secret."

            And with that, she too was gone.

            Greg returned sometime later, hands full of evidence. So I had to open the door for him. Walking in, he gently placed the evidence onto an island in the middle of the lab.

            "Um, Cristina? If it makes you feel any better, the shot your friend took to the head: Doc Robbins said that it caused an instant death; he didn't feel anything," Greg said to me, giving a look of remorse.

            "At least he didn't feel it," I whispered, looking through the evidence in front of us.

            "We'll bust the bastard Cristina. We'll bust 'em good," Greg whispered back, putting an arm around me.

            I managed to show him the best smile I could at that time. He had no idea how much his words meant to me.

            "I guess in order to bust 'em, we better start looking over all of this," I said, grabbing the evidence bag containing the bullet taken from the body.

            "Alright then, I'll run these through AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System)" Greg replied as he went to one of the computers, taking the fingerprints found at the scene with him.

            After cleaning off the slug (A.N. used bullet), I took it over to a microscope to examine it more closely.

            "Hey Greg?"

            "Yes?"

            "Take a look at this. I do believe we are dealing with a 9 mm handgun (A.N. I know absolutely nothing about weapons, so bear with me)," I said as Greg came over to me.

            Looking into the other side, Greg said, "Yeah, you're right. It's definitely from a 9 mm handgun, but now's the hard part: finding out _which handgun it came from."_

            "Did anything come up on those fingerprints?" I asked.

            "Nope. All the prints came from our vic. Other than that bullet, we have nothing. Sorry Cristina, but there's not much more we can do," Greg replied.

            "I know. I'm going to go see if Brass has found out anything about where Travis may have been living," I said, placing the bullet back into its evidence bag.

            "You hoping that might help us out?" Greg asked.

            "Yeah, I'm hoping."

************************************************************************

            "Hey Brass," I said as I walked into his office.

            "Oh, Cristina. I was just about to send this down to you. Please, have a seat kid," he replied.

            Sitting down in front of his desk, I was passed a folder. I opened it and began to read its contents.

            "There's some good news here: your friend was from Vegas, so the feds won't be getting involved."

            Believe it or not, I was actually happy to hear that. I never want to deal with the feds again.

            "Alright, but then why did he tell me that he had to catch a flight tonight?" I asked.

            "Checked flight records already: he was catching a plane to Tampa; business meeting."

            "Something else I don't understand though: why his car was in a deserted parking lot miles away from the nearest airport," I said, trying to think it over.

            "You think maybe someone was able to get him there, knowing it would be empty?"

            "That's what I'm thinking. Maybe his killer called his house. Maybe left a message. But the only way to find out is with a......."

            "Already done kid. Catherine and Warrick are searching his house right now. No idea when they'll be back."

            "I hope they find something, because all we have are his (the vic) fingerprints and the slug that was removed from his head," I said, still thinking things over.

            "Speaking of that, what kind of weapon we talking about here?" Brass asked me.

            "I determined it to be a 9 mm handgun, not sure what kind yet," I replied.

            "Doesn't sound like much."

            "Is it ever?"

            "I'll see if I can uncover anything else about the vic," Brass said as I stood to leave.

            "Alright. I'll go see if Greg has found anything useful with out me," I replied as I walked out of his office.

************************************************************************

            "So Greg, find anything useful yet?" I asked him as I walked into our lab.

            "Nope. Haven't found anything since you left. Thinking of that, what did you find out?" Greg asked me as I sat in my chair.

            "Well, I now know that......."

            I then told him all that I had just been told.

            "Well, least we won't have to deal with your old friends," Greg replied, smirking because he was referring to the feds.

            "You wouldn't think it was funny if you had worked with them," I said, slapping the back of his head.

            "What was that for?" Greg asked, giving me a very irresistible look.

            "Nothing," I replied, slightly blushing and turning away.

            "Yeah, whatever."

            It was quiet for the next few hours, except for the low drone of the machines that we had running.

            But then the silence was disrupted when Nick walked into the lab.

            "We just got another call. Come on Cristina; you're supposed to come, just in case," Nick said.

            "God I hope not," I mumbled as I left for the locker room again.

************************************************************************

            Reaching the scene, we found another car in yet another empty parking lot.

            Getting out of the black Tahoe, I became afraid of what I might find. I put my gloves on as Nick did the same. Walking over to the driver's side window, I didn't see anyone. 

            I did see high velocity blood spatter, which is concurrent to a gunshot wound. I also noticed a lot of blood soaked into the driver's seat.

            "_Shit, that means we've got a head wound," I thought to myself._

            I looked into the backseat and still saw nothing, just the same high velocity blood spatter.

            "We may be dealing with more than one shot," I called out to Nick, who was searching the ground around the car.

            "Yeah, I found two shell casings," he replied, standing up.

            "I've got a bad feeling about this," I said as we walked around to the trunk.

            I opened it to reveal my fears: someone else I knew was dead.

            "This explains the massive blood loss in the driver's seat," Nick said, indicating two wounds, one in each temple.

            "I just don't understand," I said.

************************************************************************

            "Another friend gone," I said as I walked back into the lab.

            "Who was it this time?" Greg asked me, hearing the sadness in my voice.

            "His name was T.C., another really good friend of mine. Came to visit me last week too," I replied, hardly being able to speak.

            "You know what, our shift ended an hour ago. I think it's time to go home now," Greg said, ever so gently putting his arms around me.

            I just nodded in response.

************************************************************************

            Thirty minutes later, we walked into his apartment. I just kept walking toward my room while Greg grabbed a soda from the fridge.

            Reaching my room, I quietly closed the door behind me, as if I were going to disturb someone.

            I then went and sat on my bed; my back against the wall and my legs pulled up to my chest, held there by my arms. I buried my head in my arms and cried.

            I didn't care if anyone could hear me or not. Two of my best friends were dead. No one else knew what that was like.

            After about ten minutes or so, I heard knocking on my door.

            Stopping my tears the best I could, I said, "It's open."

            Greg then walked into the room, though I could hardly seem him because I didn't have any lights on and my vision was blurred.

            I just kept sitting there; I didn't know what to say or anything.

            Greg walked over and joined me on the bed. Sitting next to me, he moved as close as he could and put his arms around me.

            Letting go of my legs, I put my arms around him and put my head against his chest and cried.

            Feeling his chest move as he breathed, I soon fell asleep in his arms, knowing that someone was here for me.

************************************************************************

A.N. Sorry if that was a boring chapter, but I truly didn't have that many ideas. But it was pretty long for someone with no inspiration; maybe it was because I watched CSI last night........hehe........ But either way, I hope that all of you enjoyed this. Don't forget, your reviews keep me going, so please don't stop!


	7. Evidence and Secrets

A.N.) Like I had said already, I know nothing about weapons; though now that I think about it, I probably could have looked in one of my forensic books and found something better than a 9 mm for a murder weapon. But let's face it; if ya get shot in the temple by any firearm, chances are, ya won't live. So yeah, I guess I'll stick with that. But thanks for the description, it may become very useful.

            'Concentrate on what cannot lie; the evidence.......'

                                                -Gil Grissom; CSI computer game

One more thing; where is everyone? I got two reviews since I posted the last chapter. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll be going on vacation for a few days, so I won't be able to post anything new for a while. Sorry if you hate me for that. But I'll update as soon as I get back. Please R&R!

************************************************************************

Chapter 7

            "What time is it?" I mumbled to myself.

            I looked at my watch: 9:30p.m.

            *Yawn* "Great, I have an hour before shift starts," I said to no one as I turned on the bedside lamp.

            Sitting up on my bed, I saw that I had a piece of paper in my hand:

            'I'll be there for you, when the rain starts to fall.

             I'll be there for you, like we've been there before.

             I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me to.'

(A.N. Theme from 'Friends' if you don't already know. I don't actually watch it, I just like the song.)

            "Where did this......." I began to say before I remembered what happened the day before/earlier in the day.

            I just smiled and put the small piece of paper into my wallet behind my driver's license. I then got all of my clothes together and went into my bathroom to get ready.

************************************************************************

            About twenty minutes later, I was dressed and ready for work. So I left my room and went to wait for Greg.

            I sat down on the couch in front of the large t.v. screen. Greg didn't keep me waiting very long.

            "Good evening Cristina," Greg greeted me happily.

            "Same to you," I replied as I got up and walked over to him.

            "Are you feeling better?" he asked me, the concern in his eyes showing again.

            Walking closer to him, I smiled. Then I threw my arms around his neck and kissed those gentle lips of his.

            He then wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

            "God how I love you Greg," I managed to say, even though he was busy trying to suck my bottom lip off.

            Not that I was any less guilty. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

            For a few brief moments, we must have forgotten that we had to get to work. Greg had a sudden idea of un-tucking my shirt and slowly moving his hands up my back.

            I wasn't expecting that, so I ended up leaning into him, because he had startled me. But boy could I tell that he enjoyed that!

            And he certainly wasn't about to move his hands anytime soon. The further he moved his hands up my back, the more my hips pressed into his.

            Then his phone rang.

            "Damn our luck," we both mumbled as he went to answer it.

            "Greg Sanders speaking."

            "Greg, come in early today. We have some new evidence that needs to be looked over," Grissom said over the phone.

            "Yeah, I'll leave in a few minutes," Greg replied. "Does Cristina know yet?"

            You see, no one else knew that I was living with Greg yet.

            "No. We don't have a number to reach her with. Not ever her cell number," Grissom said.

            "I have her cell number. Do you want me to give her a call?" Greg replied, turning around to grin at me.

            "Do that. And be here soon."

            With that said, Grissom hung up, as did Greg.

            "Well, we've gotta leave now. There's some new evidence that we have to look at, so Gris wants us in early. Oh yeah, I also called you on your cell phone, just like I promised I would," Greg said to me.

            "What do you mean you just called me?" I asked in reply.

            "No one has a number to contact you with. But I said that I did and I would call you and tell you that we have to be in early today," Greg said, grinning still.

            "Well then, I guess we really should get there now. Maybe this new evidence can help with the murders," I said as Greg held the apartment door open for me as I walked out.

************************************************************************

            Soon enough, we were walking into the locker room to put on our lab coats for the night.

            We then walked to our lab together; my hand was found in his.

            Walking in there, I saw a tape/c.d. player with a note attached to it:

            'Cristina and Greg,

                        Listen to tape inside. Answering machine tape from first vic's house.'

            "I guess we should do what the note says before we do anything else," Greg said to me as we rolled our chairs to the tape player.

            He pressed play as soon as we were both seated:

            'Hello?'

            *indistinct noises in background of tape* 

            'I have your friend.'

            'Who is this?'

            'I have Cristina with me. Meet me in the vacant strip mall parking lot in an hour if you ever want to see her again.'

            'Wait! Who are you and what have you done to her?!'

            'I haven't done anything.......yet.'

            *phone is hung up on the opposite line*

            "Whoa, if that wasn't on the creepy side, I don't know what is," Greg said as soon as the tape finished.

            I just kept sitting there, staring blankly at the tape player as though expecting the mysterious caller to pop out and get me.

            "Cristina? Are you ok? What's up?" Greg asked me concernedly.

            "Someone used me as bait......." I whispered. "And that voice......."

            "The digitally altered one?" Greg asked.

            I nodded, though I didn't tell him I had heard it on my cell phone just a few nights before.

            "There's nothing more that we can do with it. But why don't you take it down to Warrick and see what he can do with that," Greg said to me, taking the tape out and handing it to me.

            "Yeah, I'll do that. Maybe he can fix that altered voice," I replied as I walked out the lab door.

************************************************************************

            "Hey Warrick!" I called out as I reached the audio/visual room.

            "Hey Cristina. What are you doing here?" he replied as I walked in.

            "Have a tape here I need you to go over. There's a digitally altered voice that's been recorded on here. I was thinking that maybe you would be able to sort it out," I said as I handed him the tape.

            "I'll see what I can do. Anything else?"

            "Yeah. We also heard some noises in the background of the tape as the unknown caller spoke. Think you can sort out what they might be?"

            "Yeah, I'll start with that then. I'll isolate the noises and see what comes up," Warrick replied.

            "Great. Tell me what comes up later?" I asked as I wrote down my pager and cell phone numbers.

            "Soon as I find out anything," he replied, grinning at me as I walked out of the room.

************************************************************************

            "So Greg, find anything unusual?" I asked as I re-entered the lab.

            "Nothing. Zip, zero......." Greg said.

            "Nada," I finished (a.n. to understand the humor in that, watch Monster Garage.)

            "The only thing that was out of place was the recording on the tape. Everything else was as normal as anything ever is. And, surprise, it all belonged to our first vic," Greg said.

            "And what about our second vic?" I asked.

            "Last I heard, his home is being searched right now," Greg replied.

            *Cristina's cell phone rings*

            "Miltadez."

            "Cristina, front parking lot, five minutes," I heard someone say to me.

            Great. Should I guess what the reason is?

            "Alright. I'll be right out," I replied as I hung up.

            "Let me guess......another call to a scene?" Greg said.

            "How did you know?" I replied sarcastically.

            "It's a gift," Greg replied, raising his hands up to the ceiling.

            'Right," I said as I rolled my eyes and walked out.

************************************************************************

            "Turn into this parking lot here," Grissom said from the passenger's seat next to me.

            Yeah, I finally got to drive to the scene myself.

            "Safer riding with you than with Nick," Sara said from the back seat.

            Again, we got out of the car only to see pick-up truck in an empty parking lot.

            "I really don't like where this is going," I thought to myself.

            Walking over to the truck, I saw that there was no one in the front or back of the truck.

            "There's nothing in the truck bed," Sara called from the back.

            "Still no form of i.d. in the car. And I've got some high velocity blood spatter in the driver's seat and on the windshield," I said as Sara walked up to me.

            "Looks like the vic took a shot or two to the head," she replied, looking in the front of the car.

            "Yeah, that would explain the two shell casings I just found," I said as I placed them into evidence bags.

            "But the question right now is what happened to the body? The vic couldn't have gotten out of their truck and walked away, not after losing this much blood. They must have been carried away," Sara said, still examining the front of the car.

            "Or dragged."

            Sara and I looked up to see Grissom following a small trail that looked like it had been made by the heels of a pair of tennis shoes.

            We stopped what we were doing and followed.

            The trail suddenly stopped at an edge of the parking lot where incredibly tall, dry grass was growing.

            The three of us then walked a short distance into the grass before we saw what we were looking.

            Actually, we smelled it first.

            "I'd say he's been here a few hours already," Sara said after she had covered her face with an arm.

            "I second that," I replied as I too covered my face.

            Yeah, that was just great. I mean, what better way to start the night than to be staring at what had been a friend of yours a few hours ago and is now dead and going through the early stages of decomposition.

            "You recognize him?" Grissom asked me, somehow being able to tolerate the smell.

            "Yeah. I knew him. Yet again, he also visited me last week. His name is......was Devon," I replied, really wanting to get away from there and back to fresh air.

            "Hey, look at this," Sara said, leaning over something a few feet front the body.

            She held up another shell casing.

            "So now there's more than one gun involved because that is way too big for a 9 mm," I said as the casing went into an evidence bag.

            "And that proves it," Grissom said, pointing to a third entrance wound in the decomposing body's chest.

            "I'm going to go back to the car now.......I'm feeling a little sick right now," I said, walking away as I tried not to puke from the stench that seemed to increase each second.

            "I think I'll join you," Sara called out, running to catch up to me.

************************************************************************

            Reaching the Tahoe, I took as many deep breathes as I could.

            "I never knew fresh air was so wonderful," I said.

            "I know what you mean. No matter how many times you see.......smell this kind of thing, you never quite get used to it," Sara replied as we watched to body get rolled into an ambulance and taken away.

            "How can he resist that horrid decomp smell?" I asked, indicating Grissom, who was walking back to the Tahoe now.

            "Cristina, if I knew, I would most definitely tell you," Sara said as Grissom got into the car.

            "Alright, we can leave now," he said.

            "Thank you!" I said to myself.

************************************************************************

            "Was it someone else you knew?" Greg asked me as I walked into the lab, yet again.

            "Stop reading my mind," I replied as I sat down at a microscope and began looking at the three slugs (a.n. need I explain again?) that I had just gotten from Doc Robbins.

            "Two 9 mm slugs, not surprising. Came out of each temple. And, this is new.......just discovered what caliber the new weapon is: a 45. Great," I said, not looking up from my work when I heard Greg walk up behind me.

            Pretending as though he wasn't there, I rolled my chair over to a split screen microscope and looked at all of the 9 mm slugs.

            "Shit," I mumbled. "These all have identical lands and grooves. Damn! This means my fears are now reality: we're dealing with a serial killer."

            Laying my arms onto the counter I was at, I then put my head down on top of them and closed my eyes.

            I then felt someone put their hands on my shoulders. I sat straight up.

            "Whoa Cristina. Take it easy. Just put your head back down," Greg said to me ever so gently as he slipped his hands under my shirt and began to rub my shoulders.

            I didn't say anything, but I did as Greg said to do. He kept rubbing my shoulders for a little while. Then he did the back of my neck, which relieved the burning sensation I'd been feeling back there. Before I knew it, he was giving me a wonderful massage.

            Wow. Does Greg know how to make a girl feel better or what?

            He made me feel so comfortable that I almost fell asleep where I was sitting. And I probably would have too, except for one minor detail:

            Grissom had just walked into the lab.

            Greg and I both jumped up, though Greg was facing a little problem at the time: he still had one hand stuck on my shoulder under my shirt because his hand was stuck under my shoulder bra strap.

            "Am I interrupting something?" Grissom asked us, showing no emotion as Greg finally removed his hand.

            "No, I just uh......well I......" I tried to say.

            "She had a shoulder cramp and it was really bothering her, so......." Greg cut in.

            "He decided to help get rid of it," I finished.

            After looking at us like we'd committed murder or something (a.n. funny analogy, huh?), he walked over to where I had been looking at the used bullets and looked at those.

            Looking at Greg, I tried not to laugh: he was about as red as you can be. Though I don't think I was any better.

            "Try to turn down the blushing Greg. It's really obvious," I whispered into his ear.

            "I suggest you do the same then," he whispered back.

            I could feel the warmth from my face going down as Grissom looked up at us.

            "So what do we have?" he asked.

            "We now have a serial killer; the 9 mm slugs, they match in all three vics. And then there's the fact that all three victims were found in/or near their cars in empty parking lots. AND each one has at least one shot to a temple," I replied, leaning against a counter, pretending that nothing had happened.

            "That adds to what we have now: each vic had a call placed to their homes. We have a recording from each one. All three recordings have the same digitally altered voice speaking to the vics. In each one, the message is the same, almost as if its been pre-recorded," Grissom said, standing now. "What about those casings?"

            "Can't tell you too much about them. They aren't your usual run-of-the-mill casings, that's for sure. In fact, if anything, they look as though the shooter made them themselves. And I can't find any prints on them," Greg replied, shrugging.

            "Alright. Keep me posted."

            With that said, Grissom left us in the lab to continues out work.

            As soon as we were sure no one would hear us, we started laughing about the fact that we had been caught.

************************************************************************

            Four very long hours later, Greg and I headed to the locker room to put up our lab coats so that we could leave.

            "I bet that by the end of the week, everyone here will think that we're a couple of teenagers working in a lab," I said, laughing as we walked out to Greg's car.

            "We aren't? I though we were," Greg replied, also laughing as we got into his car.

            "I guess I'm close to that though," I said as we drove away.

            "Why's that?" Greg asked me, still laughing a little.

            "Because; I'm twenty-five. I might as well be a teen again," I replied, blushing at the fact I was so young.

            "Don't be embarrassed about that," Greg said to me, smiling. "I'm only a year older."

            "You're twenty-six?"

            "Sure am."

            "Don't think this means that I'm a little kid cause you're a year older," I said, laughing again.

            "You're not?" he replied mockingly.

            "Shut up and keep driving," I replied, still laughing.

************************************************************************

            "Home sweet home," Greg said as he opened the door to our apartment.

            "God I'm exhausted," I said as I took my sandals off and stretched out on the couch.

            "That makes two of us," Greg replied as he took off his shoes and socks, as well as his shirt.

            "You don't mind, do you?" he asked after seeing the look on my face.

            "No! Please do!" I replied, still staring at him.

            Greg then got onto the couch with me, stretching out so his head was at my feet.

            For a few minutes, we didn't say anything. We just enjoyed the silence. But then Greg spoke up:

            "What's your family like Cristina?"

            "Huh? My family?"

            "Yeah."

            "Well, in case you can't tell, we're on the Hispanic side of things."

            "I guessed that much."

            "Well, my parents are together and I have a younger sister. We've also raised guinea pigs since I was about ten. Other than that, there's not too much more about my family," I said. "What about your family Greg?"

            "My family?"

            "You asked about mine. If you don't want to say anything that's........" I began, but Greg cut in.

            "It's not that. It's just that.......well, I've never told anyone else about them," Greg replied, his voice growing quieter.

            "Oh, is little Greg hiding secrets from everyone?" I asked, laughing a little.

            Then I saw Greg look away.

            "I'm so sorry if I offended you in any way Greg! I just......"

            "You didn't say or do anything wrong. It's just.......it's just that my family was murdered when I was a kid. It was a burglary gone wrong. Both my parents and my younger sister were killed. I had hidden under my bed, so that's how I came out of it alive," Greg said to me in a whisper, almost as though he was afraid someone else would hear him.

            "Oh my God........Greg, I'm so sorry......." I whispered back as I sat up.

            I then turned myself around so that I was lying down behind Greg. I sat up against the armrest so that I was half sitting, half lying down on the couch.

            Greg was still turned away from me, but I could feel him shaking. I then put one arm under him and one arm over him and turned him over so that he was looking up at me while his head was resting on my stomach.

            Poor Greg, he was just laying there, crying. I didn't know what to say.

            With one hand over his chest, I grabbed his hands and held them. With my other hand I gently stroked his head, hoping that I might make him feel better.

            I have no idea how long I was doing that. I just know that Greg stopped shaking after a while and slowly sat up next to me.

            Removing one hand from my grasp, he slipped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes as we both lay down on the couch again.

            "Cristina?"

            "Hm?"

            "Have you........have you ever had a boyfriend?" Greg asked me quiet shyly.

            I turned my head to look him in the eyes. God those eyes can torture a girl!

            "No, I've never had a boyfriend. Always have wanted one. But I've had plenty of guy friends that were pretty close. But, no, I've never in my life had a boyfriend," I replied. "And what about you; have you ever had a girlfriend before?"

            "Once. Just once."

            "What happened to her?"

            "She too was murdered. Except that she died very slowly and painfully years ago," Greg replied in a whisper.

            "Well now, if your life hasn't sucked, I don't know who's has," I said, causing Greg to give a small laugh.

            "Yeah. It really has. Until now," Greg replied as I moved my head onto his bare chest.

            "Why now?" I asked.

            For a scientist, I'm obviously pretty dumb.

            Both of us sitting up now, Greg looked deep into my sapphire eyes and drew his face closer to mine.

            "Because.......I have you now," he whispered as our lips met.

            "Never have I been so happy," I whispered back while he was sucking my top lip.

            "Neither have I. That's why I will never leave you," Greg whispered in reply, though not letting go of my lip.

            I will never leave you.......

************************************************************************

A.N.) Alright, does anyone hate me now? If so, I'm sorry, but vacation can't wait. Think this will be bad........just wait till I'm on a longer vacation later this summer. Then I know you'll all hate me. Hey.......I need a break too!

But anyway, hope you all like this rather long chapter. As always, keep reading and reviewing!


	8. Your Late and Double Trouble

A.N.) Alright, I'm back now. Did anyone miss me? Didn't think so........makes me sad. Anyway, I'm back at my writing now, so don't worry.

Salty Irish Dog- Thanks for sticking with me even though it seems like everyone else has left me to die (no pun intended.) And don't listen to crappy reviewers..........they suck. So thanks and you ROCK!

'I really love my job. We're just a bunch of kids who are getting paid to work on puzzles. Sometimes there's a piece that's missing: sometimes we solve it in one night.'

                                                -Catherine Willows; CSI computer game

Oh yeah, and by the way, not like you didn't know this already; I don't own CSI or any of the characters. Cristina is my property though: I created her on my own as well as the victims. So there you go.........

Though I would LOVE to own Greg Sanders..........yeah.......

************************************************************************

Chapter 8

            *Watch alarm goes off*

            "Why is my watch alarm going off?" I mumbled. "It doesn't go off until eleven p.m."

            My eyes opened so quickly, I thought that I had gone blind because all I saw was the black of night in the room.

            Then I realized that I wasn't in my room when I felt whatever I was sleeping next to move.

            "Greg and I must have fallen asleep on the couch together," I thought to myself as I became more awake.

            I would have gotten up, but I was pinned between Greg's body and the back of the couch.

            I didn't want to wake Greg up just yet, but I did want to get myself ready. So it would greatly help if I got off the couch.

            The first thing I did was move my left arm over Greg's still bare back and chest over to me. I then gently threw my left leg over his legs and slowly began to sit up.

            All I had to do then was stand on my left leg and then slowly swing my right leg over Greg and onto the ground.

            Sounds easy enough right?

            It was, except for the fact that Greg decided to roll onto his back at that time. By doing that, I fell back down, all my weight going to my hips; that caused Greg to wake up because, ironically, I was located on his hips.

            Turning on the lamp behind him, Greg just stared at me with a look of pleasure and surprise.

            "Did you want something?" Greg asked me, though having a hard time speaking because of the pressure on his hips.

            "Yeah.........NO!" I replied after realizing what he was asking, becoming redder than I had ever before.

            I then tried to get off of him, but he grabbed my waist and pulled me down so my face was centimeters from his.

            "And where do you think you're going?" he whispered to me as he pulled my face even closer to his.

            "Well," I said, running a hand over his sexy bare chest, "I was going to get myself ready for work, but I see you have other plans."

            "I think we have some time before work," Greg said, kissing me.

            "Actually, we should be there already: it's 11:05 p.m. now," I replied, putting both hands on his chest and pushing myself up so that, yet again, I was placing pressure on his hips.

            "Damn you drive me crazy!" Greg said to me in a shaky voice.

            "Really? I didn't notice," I replied sarcastically as I got off of him and went to put on different clothes.

************************************************************************

            Ten minutes later, we were in his car and going at least 90mph to reach the CSI building before 11:30.

            We made it at exactly 11:30, though we were still thirty minutes late: our shift starts at 11p.m.

            "If we walk in together, people will put two and two together and might get the wrong idea of why we're late," I said as we walked up to the building.

            "Yeah, you're right. I'll go in through the back while you go in through the front. Then no one should notice anything," Greg replied.

            "Sounds good to me. Meet you in the lab soon," I said as he went around to the back of the building.

************************************************************************

            "Evening Greg," I said as I entered the lab, pretending as though nothing had happened before work.

            "Good evening Cristina," Greg replied, grinning at me.

            Just as I took my seat in front of a computer, Grissom walked in.

            "Where were the two of you? Or do you not realize that you were late?" he said to us.

            "I was stuck in traffic," Greg and I replied in unison.

            After looking at us skeptically, Grissom told us about a called that had been received an hour earlier.

            "A call was placed here by an unknown, digitally altered voice an hour ago.  The call was recorded, but unfortunately, it was not able to be traced. It could have come from anyone anywhere. Warrick is working with the recording right now to see if we can maybe get a location of where the call was placed from."

            "What did the caller want?" Greg asked as Grissom opened the folder he was holding.

            "The caller said, in exact words: 'Listen up all of you damn CSI's, especially you........Miltadez. Think any of you will catch me; think again. And I'm not done yet. This is just the beginning. Why would I stop now? I thoroughly enjoy watching your new little tech Cristina suffer like this. Better watch yourself Miltadez you bitch; you'll never get away from me.'"

            I just sat there, a blank expression on my face, unsure of what to say.

            "So does mean that we have a stalker serial killer?" Greg asked, thinking over what we had just been told.

            "It appears that way. Whoever our caller is has a large hate of Cristina, no obvious reasons why yet," Grissom said in his usual, expressionless voice.

            "So what do we do now?" Greg asked, seeing as how I was still in a different world at the time.

            "We do all that we can do; track down the killer with the evidence that we have. Since they aren't going to stop anytime soon, we need to find out what the pattern is, other than the fact Cristina knows.........knew.........the victims," Grissom replied before walking out the lab door.

            "Cristina? Hello.........please come back to Earth now," Greg said to me, waving a hand in front of my face.

            Snapping out of my trance I guess you would call it, I immediately began to think about the caller's message and what my friends had to do with the caller.

            "Are you ok?" Greg asked me.

            "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just trying to think about the caller and my friends," I replied.

            "Well, we know the obvious fact that they were your friends, no offense. And you said that the three victims so far all came to visit you last week, right?"

            "Right."

            "But then what else is there?" Greg wondered.

            "Um, well, actually, there's more," I said quietly.

            "What do you mean there's more?"

            "Uh, well........at some point in my life, I had a crush on each them. And I wasn't lying when I said I'd never had a boyfriend before. You see, I'd never gone out with any of them before. They just didn't feel the same way about me. Occasionally, yes, I went to see a movie with one of them and a few other friends, but that's it."

            Greg didn't know what to say after my little confession.

            Getting up and walking over to him, I took his hands in mine and said, "Greg, I swear that was it. You're the only one for me. I could never and will never think of anyone else while I have you. Please say something Greg."

            "I know what the connection is," Greg replied, startling me a bit.

            "What do you mean?" I asked, still blushing from my confession and last comment.

            "I know what this killer is doing, sort of. Somehow they know about all of your guy friends. And they know that you used to have a little something going for each of them," Greg said, raising his eyebrows at saying that.

            I blushed even more.

            "So here's what I'm thinking: This killer has been watching you for sometime now; they know who you are, where you work, who you admired, basically everything about you. Whatever their grudge against you is, they've decided to take it out on every guy you've felt affectionate for. And, from what you've said, the killer is going in the order that you met them," Greg finished as I stood there, still very red from embarrassment and speechless as well.

            I didn't know what to say. Greg had just said everything I had been thinking.

            "You're speechless. I know, I'm just that brilliant," Greg said, sitting down and propping his legs up on a counter, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, smiling like crazy.

            He didn't relax for long: I put one hand on his face and pushed him backwards, causing him to fall back onto the floor.

            "You're no rocket scientist, that's for sure," I said to him, laughing as he sat up on the floor and began laughing himself.

            "I never said I was!" Greg said, still laughing.

            "Uh huh. Well, until your big head deflates, I'm going to write a list of my guy friends. Maybe by doing that, we can have them watched; just to make sure that nothing else happens.

            Just as I was finishing my list, someone paged me.

            "Great, another call," I mumbled, yet still getting Greg's attention.

            "You know I'm always here for you Cristina," Greg said to me as I got up to leave.

            "I know you are. And thanks," I replied as I walked out the door.

************************************************************************

            Going to this crime scene with me was Sara. I was the one driving. 

            "Let's hope we don't find another decomp," Sara said to me as we left the CSI building.

            "Not as much as me," I said under my breath as I drove on.

            "I guess that you heard that message from the freak caller," Sara said, acting as though she hadn't heard my last comment.

            "Yeah, I definitely heard it. People like that make me sick," I replied, my grasp on the steering wheel becoming like a death-grip from anger at the caller.

            "So, I noticed that you and Greg were both late this morning," Sara said, changing the subject quickly. "What took you two so long?"

            "We woke up late. I guess we were both really tired after how long we talked last night," I replied, realizing too late that I had said too much.

            The look on my face said it all. But Sara just gave a brief laugh.

            "Are you saying that you were sleeping with Greg?! And you've been here how long?!" she exclaimed, not quite sure how to react.

            "Yes. No! Wait! It's not what you think. I mean, yes, I guess we did sleep together, but that's only because we fell asleep on the couch after talking for God only knows how long. And we were completely dressed, except Greg had his shirt off, but that's it. Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing!" I replied frantically.

            "Well, now that you've told me this much, why not finish," Sara said, her eyes wide with wonder.

            "I might as well," I replied, getting myself ready to tell her.

            For the next ten minutes, I told her about close to everything; from Greg offering me a ride to my hotel to him offering me the spare room in his apartment. I did leave out the reason why I took Greg up on his offer; I didn't want her to know about the call I had gotten on my cell phone. I also left out all of the moments when Greg and I were close, both at work and his apartment.

            By the time I had finished, I actually felt a lot better. I was glad that I had told Sara about Greg and myself and how we were, well, dating in our own way.

            "I'm glad that Greg has found someone. I mean, you're perfect. Maybe you can get him to be a little more serious too," Sara said to me, grinning.

            "I don't want him to be serious though. I really like him just the way he is," I replied, smiling and blushing all at once.

            "Well, if you want to talk to me about anything, feel free to anytime. I rarely sleep; so most likely you'll find me in the lab working," she said as I pulled into, surprise, another empty parking lot.

            "Thanks. I'll be sure to come to you if I need to talk," I replied as we stepped out of the Tahoe and onto the crime scene.

            "Glad the two of you made it here so quickly. We've got a hell of a crime scene here," Catherine said, greeting us as we walked over to the car.

            "Damn. No kidding," I said, looking at the massive amount of blood on the ground and on the car; a silver Pacifica.

            "Ground or inside?" Sara asked me.

            "I'll take the ground this time," I replied as I began my work.

            It took me no time at all to find the shell casing: two 9 mm casings and two 45 calibers, just as I had expected.

            "I bet I know who we're looking for," I thought grimly to myself as I made my way around the car.

            Reaching the front passenger's side, I found something that made my heart skip a beat: two more 9 mm casings AND two 45's.

            "F**k!" I yelled as I jumped up, seeing everyone else at the scene stop to stare at me.

            "So much for our gentle tempered lab tech," Catherine said, walking over to me. "So what's so important that you had to yell out like that?"

            Blushing horribly now, I replied, "I found two 9 mm shell casings and two 45's, as I expected, on the driver's side. But then when I got over here, I found the same amount of both. That all adds up to....."

            "We have two vics," Sara finished, looking inside of the car. "Just like at our last call, there's no one here. But there were definitely two people here; the amount of blood loss is too much to have come from one person alone."

            "I've got a feeling that we should look in that high grass over there," I said, pointing to what appeared to be a trail of drag marks in the loose parking lot gravel.

            The three of us then followed the drag mark trail into the overgrown desert grass which was growing at the back of the parking lot. We walked quickly about thirty feet into the grass before any of us saw anything.

            "I've got a tennis shoe here," I heard Sara call out, about four feet to my left.

            "Me too, but that's not all I've got," Catherine called out, about five feet to my right.

            After placing the tennis shoe into an evidence bag, Sara and I ran up to Catherine to see her find.

            "So, who might this be Cristina?" Catherine asked me as the three of us stared at a very bloody body.

            Thankfully he wasn't at the decomp stage yet.

            "That used to be Kevin, but I don't understand why him now," I replied.

            "What do you mean by that?" Sara asked me.

            Taking out a small piece of paper from my pocket, I showed it to them.

            "See? This killer is going after them in the order that I met the guys. I was expecting that tonight it would be Tommy, but it's Kevin instead," I said, still very confused.

            "You think the killer knows what we know?" Sara asked.

            "I wouldn't doubt it. Since they are obviously stalking you Cristina, it wouldn't be a surprise that they know all that we know. Or at least what you know," Catherine replied.

            "What we still don't know yet is what happened to the second victim," Sara said to us as we searched over the body.

            "Wait........did anyone check the trunk of the car?" I asked, causing them to look up at me.

            "No, I was still looking over the front of the car before we took off this way," Sara said.

            Before they knew it, I was running back toward the parking lot.

            "Where are you going?" Catherine called to me.

            "I've got a really bad feeling about something," I yelled back at them as I ran on.

            I'm no Olympic runner, but I'm pretty fast. Thankfully I had worn tennis shoes that night.

            I reached the car again in a few minutes. Sara and Catherine joined me soon after.

            "Someone pop the trunk now!" I snapped.

            Opening the driver's side door, Catherine popped the trunk for me.

            My newest fear was lying in front of me, bloody as hell and dead, just likes his friend.

            Catherine came over to join Sara and myself, both of us were staring at our second victim.

            "Who......." Catherine began to ask.

            "Oh my God.........they killed Kenny."

************************************************************************

A.N.) Sorry about taking so long for this chapter. I had a huge mental block. Heh, don't know if everyone likes that last bit of humor or not, but I thought I might as well get that little phrase off of my mind. Anyway, please review and pass the word.

_Same Friends, New And Different Feelings_-that's my Harry Potter fic. It's about Oliver Wood and an O.C named Cristina (yeah, the name from there carries over to this fic.) Check it out sometime. 

_The New Invasion_- that's an Animorphs fic I'm writing with Twilight Starz. There's a Yeerk name that we made up together (it's actually quite the perfect name.) The four new Animorph characters we created are as follows: Oliver-need I say more? Cristina-yes, the name used here is carried over there. Sarah-Twilight's O.C. she's pretty awesome. and Andrew-you'll find out about him later in this fic.........

_Shadow of the Night_- that's the X-Men Evolution fic a cousin of mine is writing. I'm posting it for her, so please be sure to tell her what you think. I think it totally rocks!

Reviews are GREATLY appreciated for ALL of these!

I'll be leaving for more vacation this weekend, so I'll be a while before I update again. I'll try to write while I'm gone so I can type it up when I get back. Till my next chappie........


	9. Lovesick Teenagers? That's us!

A.N) It's me again. Yup, the writer who is feeling quite alone right now. Few reviews come anymore, if any. Really, I find it to be depressing. But for those of you who still read this, thanks a ton!

(I wrote the following while I was in Texas: A.N – To all of my readers: I miss writing so much that I am writing this chapter on paper while laying on my bed in Texas. I swear I'll type this up as soon as I get back home. I would thank some of you individually, but right now I'm trying not to get caught by my parents.)

'The laws of physics trump the eye-witness. There's only one way this coulda gone down.'

                                                            -Warrick Brown; CSI computer game

So here's chapter 9.........

************************************************************************

Chapter 9

            "Who the hell is Kenny?" Sara asked me.

            "He was a friend of mine, as well as a friend of Kevin's. They had both been taking night classes, I'm not sure where, because they work during the day. They lived fairly close to each other, so they'd alternate the carpool: one week Kevin would drive his car; the next week Kenny would drive them," I replied as both bodies were taken away so we could finish checking our scene.

            "What I don't understand though is why this person would kill Kenny. At no point in time did I have a crush on him," I added, trying to think about possible motives for the killer.

            "My guess is that your friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Catherine said, glancing down at her watch as we searched the trunk of the car. "I'd say that they had just left their classes when your friend Kevin got a call, obviously saying to come here."

            Taking over on that idea, I added, "So that would mean that there was no time to drop Kenny off at his place before coming here. Never being one to argue, he came here with Kevin, unfortunately, where they both met their end."

            We had just finished searching the scene; the trunk of the car being the last part of the scene. Making our way to the Tahoe Sara and I arrived in, I took the keys out of my back pocket.

            As I was about to unlock the SUV, Sara took the keys from my grasp.

            "Um, Cristina? Why don't you let me drive," Sara said.

            I just nodded in reply. I really didn't feel like driving.

            I then climbed into the front passenger's side as Sara got in front of the wheel.

            Starting the car, we drove off in silence, Catherine's Tahoe following behind us in the dim, very early morning light.

            The next five minutes or so were filled with silence, not any different from when we had left the scene.

            Finally, I said something: "I still don't understand any of this. I mean, why would anyone go after my friends? If someone's trying to get at me, then why don't they come get me?"

            "But someone is after you. Remember that phone call that CSI received? After hearing that, I'd say someone isn't just after your friends, but yourself as well," Sara replied.

            "I hadn't thought about that. Damn, now what do I do?" I said, not expecting a response.

            "Well, right now we have to get this evidence back to the lab and see if we can get anything off of it. Otherwise we can't do anything," Sara responded.

            "You've got a point there," I said, allowing a small laugh to escape.

            "Besides, if you need protection, I'm sure Greg would be most willing to help you," Sara said, giving me an evil grin and a laugh.

            "Shut up and keep driving," I replied, returning her grin as we drove into the parking lot.

************************************************************************

            "So, who was the unfortunate vic this time? Was it Tommy like you had written on your list?" Greg asked me as soon as I walked into the lab.

            "No. And I think the killer knows that we've figured out their pattern," I replied, dropping down into my chair.

            "What do you mean?"

            "I was expecting to find Tommy, but we found Kevin instead," I replied, looking down from him.

            "Shit! That throws us off now!" Greg exclaimed, standing up now.

            "But that's not all," I added, still looking at the ground, my long hair covering my face.

            "What?" Greg asked, pacing in front of me.

            "They killed another friend of mine just because he was getting a ride with Kevin," I replied.

            "Who was it?" Greg asked, stopping right in front of me.

            "They killed Kenny," I whispered.

            "Those bastards!" Greg shouted.

            I didn't make any sound from where I was sitting. I was really depressed. He couldn't see my face because my thick hair was still covering it. But somehow he still knew that I was crying, silent tears falling down my cheeks.

            "Hey.........Cristina," he began, pulling me up so I was on my feet.

            Ever so gently, he brushed my hair off my face and pulled it behind my ears. I was still looking down. He gently tilted my head up so he could see my face.

            I didn't want him to though; my eyes were red from crying, my cheeks covered in salty tears.

            But Greg didn't care.

            "Oh Cristina, what can I do?" Greg whispered to me, holding my head in his soft hands.

            "Don't leave me Greg. Please don't leave me," I whispered softly, slowly wrapping my arms around his neck, at the same time putting my head against his chest.

            "I will never leave you Cristina," Greg whispered into my ear as he wrapped his own arms gently around my waist, pulling me even closer to him.

            We stood there for who knows how long; Greg comforting me as I cried against his chest.

            I never wanted to pull away from him, but I knew that we had work to do.

            "Greg?"

            "Hmmm?"

            "I'm gonna go clean up a bit. We do need to get back to work," I said quietly, slowly pulling away from his protective body.

            Greg let go of me reluctantly, but he knew that if we were going to catch the killer, we would have to process the evidence.

            "Yeah, I guess you should do that. Just don't keep me waiting," he replied.

            "Don't worry, I won't," I said, grinning a little.

            As I turned to walk out the door, Greg grabbed my hand.

            "Remember Cristina," he said.

            "Remember what?"

            "Remember the Alamo," Greg said to me, laughing. (A.N. yup, here I am, 7-24-03. I am right in front of it. Thought it would be fun to put this.)

            I rolled my eyes, but he still wouldn't let go of my hand.

            "Really Cristina, remember that I'm always here for you," Greg said, kissing my hand before letting go.

            "I know you are........that's why I love you," I replied as I walked out the door.

************************************************************************

            A few minutes later, I was in the locker room. Well, at my own locker to be exact. I was just sitting there in front of it, just staring off into space really. Finally I just got up and went into the women's bathroom.

            Walking over to a sink, I turned on the cold water. Grabbing some paper towels, I splashed myself with the nice, cool water. It felt wonderful on my tear-stained face. I kept doing that for a few minutes, just enjoying the feeling.

            After a while I remembered that I still had work to do, so I turned off the water and began to dry my face. Looking up into the mirror, I smiled at myself.

            "At least you don't have to worry about make-up Cristina," I thought to myself, allowing a smile to escape. (A.N. You see, I hate make-up, and I don't wear it; so I'm making my O.C. hate it and not wear it too.)

            "I guess I should get back to the lab before Greg sends out a search party," I said to no one as I went back over to my locker.

            I then took a brush out of my locker and began to brush my hair, seeing as how it got messy while I was splashing myself with water. I heard a door open, but paid no attention to it.

            "What are you doing in here?" I heard someone ask me from behind.

            I spun around to see Nick standing behind me.

            "Huh? Oh, I'm just cleaning up a bit," I replied, turning back around so I could finish my hair.

            "Ah. Tough case we've got going huh?" Nick said, opening his locker behind me.

            "Yeah, I can't wait to bust the bastards that did this to my friends," I replied, placing my brush back into my locker before I closed it.

            "Don't worry bout it. We'll get 'em," Nick said.

            "Yeah, we will," I said as I stood to leave.

            As I made my way toward the door that would take me back to the lab, Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me to him.

            "What are you doing Nick?" I asked, feeling very surprised.

            "I was wondering, if you weren't doing anything after shift ends tonight, if you'd like to go catch a movie with me or something," he replied, grinning down at me.

            "I'm sorry Nick, but I'm already taken," I replied, pulling my hand from his strong grasp and stepping away from him.

            "With who? Warrick?" he asked.

            "No, with Greg," I replied, grinning as I walked away.

            "Greg?"

************************************************************************

            "Did you get lost or something?" Greg asked me as I walked back into the lab.

            "No, I was just taking my time," I replied, not telling him about what Nick asked me a few minutes before then.

            "Now that you're back, mind if you help with this evidence?" Greg asked sarcastically.

            "Maybe," I replied, running a hand through his spiky hair.

            "Hey! It took me all night to get my hair this way!" Greg shouted, trying to grab me playfully.

            "All night? It took you all of ten seconds to put gel in your hair and screw it up!" I replied, laughing from across the lab.

            "That's not true. Styling my hair is an art," Greg said, striking a pose.

            I took that opportunity to throw my pencil at him, hitting his chin.

            "What was that for?" Greg asked me as he bent over to pick up my pencil.

            "For being so full of yourself," I replied with a laugh and a grin.

            "Fine, be that way," Greg said, sitting in his chair and turning to look into a microscope.

            I too went to work at a microscope, but I soon needed my pencil to write something down; I never used pens because I sometimes had to make changes.

            "Greg?"

            "Yes?"

            The way he says 'yes' drives me insane! And he knows it too.

            "Um, I slightly need my pencil. So could you maybe toss it over to me?" I asked.

            "Nope. You've gotta come and get it yourself," he replied, still not turning around to face me.

            "Alright then, that's what I'll do," I said, getting up and walking over to him.

            When I reached him, I spun his chair around so that he was facing me.

            "Greg, give me my penc........" I began, that is, until I saw my pencil.

            He had my pencil tightly clenched in his teeth.

            "You want it, you gotta get it," Greg managed to say.

            "You're doing this the hard way then," I replied as I got ready to retrieve my pencil.

            Before he knew what I was doing, I was sitting in his lap, facing him, my legs straddled.

            I watched with pleasure as Greg's eyes grew wider while his pupils grew smaller as I moved my hips around. I could feel his heartbeat racing as I put my hands against his neck. I could feel his breathing become more rapid as I moved my face closer to his. I moved one of my hands slowly up his jaw and removed my pencil, which was just barely staying in his mouth at that time. I slowly put my pencil into one of my back pockets before moving my hands around his neck and drawing my face even closer to his.

            Then I moved in for the kill.

            Our mouths were locked together, almost as though one in the same. I allowed his tongue to slide into my mouth, sliding over my own tongue. As we did that, Greg let out a few, deep groans of pleasure. Our mouths sealed together, I moved myself even closer to him, if that was even possible. Before too long, Greg began to nibble on my tongue before nibbling my lips. I did the same to him, enjoying every second that I touched those soft lips of his. I never wanted to stop kissing him; I loved him too much to stop.

            But I then had the sudden sensation that I was being watched.

            I pulled away so quickly that I fell onto the floor.

            I just sat there, breathing hard and feeling rather hot. I watched Greg breathing just as heavily, his face red as hell.

            "Why.........did you.........pull away?" Greg asked, still breathing heavily.

            "I felt like.........someone was watching my............every move," I managed to reply. "Maybe I'm just..........paranoid."

            "We shouldn't have been doing that anyway. If we had gotten caught........." Greg began, but I didn't let him finish.

            Putting one of my fingers against his gentle lips, I silenced him.

            "But we didn't. And that's what matters," I whispered, grinning.

            "What matters is that I was with you and you with me," Greg whispered in reply, moving my hand away while trying to kiss me again.

            He almost did too, if Sara hadn't decided to knock on the door at that time.

            "Hey lovebirds," she said to us as we jumped to our feet, blushing quite a great deal. "Were the two of you planning to leave at some point in time, because our shift has been over for an hour."

            Looking at my watch, I noticed that she was right. I guess Greg and I got a little carried away.........

            "If Ecklie had caught the two of you like that, then both of you would have been in some deep shit," Sara added.

            "He's here already?" Greg asked, anger slightly in his voice.

            "Yeah, should be coming this way any time now," Sara replied.

            "Alright then. Let's head back to the locker room now Greg. See you Sunday night Sara," I said, grabbing Greg's arm and pulling him out of the lab with me.

            "Be nice over the weekend kids," Sara said, laughing, as we walked toward the locker room.

************************************************************************

              
            "I'm so ready for this week to end," Greg said as we hung our lab coats into our separate lockers.

            "Not as much as me," I replied, taking out a sheet of paper, duct tape, and a large black marker.

            "What the hell are you going to do with all that?" Greg asked me as we sat down on a bench in front of our lockers.

            "It's a little something for Ecklie. I can't stand him, same as everyone else. So I'm doing a favor for you and everyone," I replied as I began to write on the paper with the marker.

            "And what favor would that be?"

            "Well, I haven't been evil around Ecklie yet, so I'm going to cause a great amount of embarrassment, elementary school style.........."

************************************************************************

            "Alright, you know what to do now, right?" I asked Greg as we walked out of the locker room.

            "Right"

            "Operation Kick Ass has commenced," I said as we went off to follow my plan.

            I found my victim in no time at all.

            "This is going to be too easy," I thought to myself as I casually walked up to my victim: Conrad Ecklie.

            "Good morning sir," I said as I turned to walk with him.

            "What do you want Miltadez?" Ecklie growled at me as we walked along.

            Putting my hand on his back, I replied, "I wanted to tell you that I put the blood results from your most recent suicide case on your desk already, just waiting to be read."

            "Finally, someone fairly decent comes to night shift," he said as he walked away from me.

            As I turned to leave, I saw Greg in his position. I smiled, signaling him to begin phase two.

            At seeing my smile, Greg took off to follow Ecklie. I watched as he turned down a hallway before I lost sight of him.

            Before too long, Greg was quickly walking back toward me, camera in hand.

            "Come on Cristina, let's get out of here," Greg said to me as we left, both of us holding back laughter.

            As soon as we got into his car, we just lost it completely.

            "........didn't even realize you put that sign on his back.........."

            "...........proof of his stupidity........"

            "...........bet it will stay there forever........."

            After a while we finally stopped laughing enough to the point where we didn't have blurry vision.

            "Ok, we absolutely HAVE to show everyone those pictures when we get back to work on Sunday evening," I said, still laughing a little.

            " Oh yeah! I love the sign you gave him: 'Kick me, I'm an ass-hole'." That was too perfect!" Greg said, laughing as he started his car.

            "Thank you, thank you," I said, pretending to take a bow in front of an audience.

            "What's say we get on home now huh?" Greg said as we pulled away from CSI.

            "I couldn't agree any more with you."

************************************************************************

A.N.) I'll stop it at that. I have some really great plans for the next chapter........hehe.......but all of you will have to wait until I write it, won't you? I know, I'm evil *evil laughter fills room*.

SaxophoneForensicschic05- You have been so very helpful when it comes to writing about the murder weapons. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!! I don't know what I would do without you! You rock!

Salty-Irish-Dog- I'm glad that you enjoy long chapters, seeing as how that's what I always seem to end up writing. I hope that this chapter is good enough for the long wait you had to go through while I was in Texas. You rock too!

To everyone else-thanks so much for reading this. Sorry about the long wait for this new chapter, but vacation kinda got in the way. You think this was long? Just wait until school starts back.......ugh.........but I won't stop! So continue to R&R!


	10. Fun, Secrets, Pain, And Help

A.N.) So? What did you all think about the last chapter? Was it any good? Hope so. I can already tell you that this next chapter won't disappoint you. I've got some surprises in store for this chapter..........and I won't give away any hints.........you'll just have to read it to find out..........evil me huh? Thank you :p

'If you want to learn about forensics, master everything else first.'

                                                            -Gil Grissom; CSI computer game

Oh yeah........and I decided to try something; it should be easy to figure out, but in case you can't, I'll tell you. I've decided to write parts of chapters from here on from Greg's pov (point of view). So you will now hear stuff from Cristina AND Greg.

Knew you'd all be excited.

Alright then, here's chapter 10...........

************************************************************************

Chapter 10

            Soon enough, we were back at his apartment.

            Walking into the apartment, Greg threw himself onto a couch and turned on the t.v. I however wanted to change my clothes.

            "Where might you be going, my evil little girl?" Greg asked me, lying on his stomach on a couch.

            "I'm going to change; and no you may not come with me," I replied, tossing my hair onto my back.

************************************************************************

            Once I was in my room, I closed the door behind me and locked it, just in case Greg even thought about coming in there.

            Walking over to my bed, I put my phone and pager on the bed and grabbed my pajamas.

            As I got myself dressed for the 'night', I thought about everything that had gone on that day: Finding two of my friends dead, Nick trying to get me to be his girlfriend, the lovely trick Greg and I played on Ecklie, Greg being so caring to me, and of course, Greg and I getting a little friendly in the lab.

            That last little thought of mine made me smile: I'm not quite the innocent, good little girl everyone thinks I am.

            I had just finished getting myself ready when my cell phone rang.

            "Hello?"

            "Morning Cristina! It's me, Sarah!"

            "Hey! Haven't heard from you since before I started my new job."

            "I know. You must be really busy then right now."

            "Actually, my shift ended about two hours ago. I'm at home right now for the weekend."

            "Ah. I guess that you sleep during the day?"

            "Yeah, and early evening. I work 11p to about 11a. It's really not that bad. I work with some really great people in my shift. Day shift's full of asses, so I'm quite happy in the graveyard shift."

            "That's great to hear. We should get together sometime. You know, just hang around, shop.........spend a day together, just us two girls."

            "Sounds great! All day tomorrow good for you Sarah?"

            "That will be perfect. And then you want to catch a movie later that night?"

            "Yeah, if I can bring Greg with me."

            "Who's Greg?"

            "You'll see. I'm going to keep you in suspense."

            "You're evil, you know that?"

            "Oh yeah, I definitely know that."

            "Where do you want to meet up tomorrow?"

            "Could you pick me up at my apartment?"

            "Sure! Just give me the address and I'll see you around 11a.m."

            "Alright, see you then," I replied after giving Sarah the address of Greg's apartment.

            After ending the call, I picked up my pager and placed it on my nightstand with my cell phone. I then walked to my door and opened it, going back to join Greg.

************************************************************************

            "What took you so long?" Greg asked me as I walked into the living room.

            "My friend Sarah called me. I'm going to spend the day with her tomorrow. And then tomorrow night we're going to see a movie. And you'll be coming," I replied, grinning at him.

            Greg turned his head so he could see me.

            "You mean, like a date?" he asked me, sounding quite surprised.

            "Well, yeah I guess, except that Sarah will be there. But I mean, if you don't want to go I understa........"

            "Of course I want to go!" Greg shouted, sitting up on the couch now.

            "Great! Finally something pleasant happens this week," I said, sitting next to Greg now.

            "I've had plenty of good things happen this week," Greg replied.

            "Like what?"

            "Like this morning in the lab before we left," he replied, grinning like crazy.

            "Ah yes........good point," I said, laughing.

            "It doesn't have to end you know," Greg said in such a sexy voice.

            "For now it does. I'm just way too tired. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Sorry Greg. Maybe.........tomorrow night?" I replied, resting my head on his shoulder.

            "Yeah, some sleep would be nice," Greg said, putting his head on top of mine.

            "I'll see you at some point tomorrow then, right?"

            "Yeah," Greg replied as I put a hand on his back.

            As I did that, Greg became very tense and jumped up.

            "Does your back hurt?" I asked, feeling a little concerned.

            "I'm fine.........I just need some sleep, that's all," Greg replied, now standing so that my hand wasn't on his back anymore.

            "Are you sure?" I asked feeling even more concerned now.

            "Yeah, I'm fine," Greg replied. "Sleep well Cristina."

            "You too Greg," I called out as he walked to his room.

            "Something's wrong with that boy; I just know it," I said to myself as I walked back to my own room.

************************************************************************

            "Greg you idiot! Why didn't you just tell her?" a voice in my head said as I lay on my stomach in bed.

            "She wouldn't understand," I replied to the voice.

            "Cristina's the love of your life Greg! And have you forgotten already that she too went through this?" the voice questioned.

            "It's not the same," I replied as a lump came to my throat.

            "You think it's different because a girl is supposed to show her pain while a guy acts all macho and hides it? Is that what you think?" the voice pressed on.

            "No.........I mean, yeah I guess. But Cristina's different. She's not like other girls. She's really different, but in a good way," I whispered in reply.

            "Did it occur to you that Cristina would understand because she's not like others?" the voice asked, the intensity lessening.

            "No, it didn't occur to me..........maybe I should tell her........" I replied quietly.

            "You should. For all you know she might be able to help you. Tell her tomorrow," the voice said before disappearing.

            "Maybe she can..........tomorrow..........." I mumbled to myself as I drifted off to sleep.

************************************************************************

            *yawn* "God it was nice to sleep that long!" I said as I woke up the next morning (a Saturday; 9a.m. to be exact.)

            I rolled out of bed to a most wonderful smell.

            "Mmmmmm. What smells so good?" I mumbled to myself. "It smells like.........is Greg cooking breakfast?!"

            I couldn't resist the smell coming from the kitchen.

            Opening my door, I made my way there, smirking the way there. My eyes were half open since I had just awoken.

            "Good morning Cristina," Greg greeted me as I sat down at the table.

            You don't know how insane I go when he says 'good.' It's just something about the way he says it. And my name sounds so much better when he says it..........

            "Morning Greg," I replied groggily, still grinning as he stood at the stove.

            "I didn't wake you did I?" Greg asked, joining me at the table.

            "No, not at all," I replied, my eyes finally adjusting to the light.

            "You hungry?" Greg asked me.

            "I'm starving!" I replied, smiling at him as he went back over to the stove.

            Minutes later, Greg walked back over to the table and placed a plate in front of me: eggs and a few pieces of toast.

            "This is great Greg! Thanks!" I said right before I began eating my food.

            "No problem Cris," Greg replied, walking back to the stove to get his own breakfast.

            "Who told you my nickname?" I asked him, chewing the food in my mouth.

            "That's your nickname? Really? I just felt like calling you that," Greg said as he laughed.

            "Yeah, that's what all of my friends call me for short," I replied.

            "I like that, Cris," Greg said to me, smiling. "You want anything to drink with that?

            "Yeah, that'd be great. You have any orange juice?" I asked as Greg got up again.

            "Sure do," he replied before bringing me a glass full.

            "Thanks," I said before taking a few sips from the glass.

            "No problem. Would you like some coffee with that?" Greg asked me.

            "No thanks Greg. I've never liked coffee. Thanks for offering though," I replied.

            "Oh really? Well, you'll change your mind after you've had some of mine. Here, try some," Greg said, handing me his mug of coffee.

            "Alright, I'll try it. If I drop dead, I'll come after you in my next life," I said, laughing.

            As soon as I took that first sip, I knew that my opinion about coffee had completely changed.

            "God this is great Greg! What is it?" I said, passing it back to him.

            "You like it? It's my special Blue Hawaiian brew. Everyone prefers it over the dayshift crap. I personally think the dayshift sludge looks like one of Grissom's experiments," Greg replied, laughing.

            "So this is what I always smell in the CSI break room. And you're right about the dayshift crap; I've seen it before and it's not a pretty sight," I said, also laughing.

            I finished eating shortly after that. I then had to go get myself ready.

            "Thanks so much for making breakfast for me Greg. I'm gonna go get ready now because Sarah will be here in about an hour," I said, standing up.

            "Glad you liked it," he replied, smiling at me before I went back to my room.

************************************************************************

            "Cristina? Can I come in?" I asked as I knocked on her bedroom door.

            I didn't get an answer, but the door swung open.

            "Should I go in or not?" I asked myself.

            Stupid question.

            Her bathroom door was closed; she was obviously taking a shower. I went in and sat on her bed.

            Not long after I sat on her bed, Cristina's cell phone began to ring. I decided to answer it for her.

            "Hello?"

            "I know who you are..........Greg Sanders."

            I nearly dropped her phone. The voice on the other end was the same digitally altered one who had called Cristina's friends. I was talking to the murderer of her friends!

            "Who.........who are you?" I asked.

            "*evil laughter* If I told you then I wouldn't be having any fun watching Cristina suffer."

            "Leave her alone you ass," I said, not regretting saying any of that.

            "An ass am I? I'm so scared," the caller said, mocking me.

            "You better be. We're gonna bust you," I replied.

            "That's what you think. I know about the list that your little bitch wrote. Thinks she's so intelligent, writing down all those names. That's why I'm changing my plans *evil laughter*."

            "How..........how the hell do you know this?" I asked.

            "I know everything about her Greg," the caller replied.

            "That's not true!"

            "Oh but it is. I know what went on in the lab before you two left together for the weekend *more evil laughter*. I know everything. I see everything."

            "Go to hell you creep!" I yelled into the phone, hoping Cristina didn't hear me.

            "Not before I get all of them...........including you, Sanders. You can all run, but none of you can hide. *more evil laughter*"

            Then, just as suddenly as they had called, they hung up. I placed Cristina's phone back on her nightstand.

            "There is no way this was the first time they called her cell phone. Cristina really does have a stalker after her. And they're after me too..........." I said to myself as I heard Cristina opening her bathroom door.

            She uh, wasn't expecting me to be there, sitting on the edge of her bed, waiting for her. So she kinda freaked.

            "Greg?! What the hell are you doing in here?!" she yelled, a little startled, yet laughing a little.

            "Uh, I was uh........" I tried to say something, but I didn't know what to say.

            "Right. You're lucky that I'm dressed," Cristina replied.

            "Am I?" I said sarcastically.

            I never even saw it coming. Cristina threw the shirt she'd been sleeping in at me. I laughed as I removed it from my face.

            "I guess you'll be wanting this back now?" I asked her.

            "If you don't mind," Cristina replied.

            "Oh, but I do mind," I said, putting her sleep shirt down my shorts. "Come and get it," I added.

            "Why do you make your life so hard Greg?" Cristina replied as she pounced on me, pinning me to her bed.

            "Because you make it so much easier," I replied, watching the grin on her beautiful face grow into a smile.

            "That didn't make any sense, but then again, that reply did come from you. So I can't really expect anything intelligent," Cristina said, laughing.

            "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, rolling Cristina over so that I had her pinned to her bed.

            "Oh, nothing," she replied, pushing me to the floor, holding her sleep shirt in her hands.

            "How did you get it from me?" I asked, sitting on the floor now.

            "That's my secret now isn't it," she replied, grinning madly as she picked up her phone, pager, and wallet, leaving her shirt on her bed. Cristina looked at her watch.

            "I'm off to meet Sarah now. But is there a reason you were waiting for me?" Cristina asked me.

            I thought about asking her about the caller, but I decided not to. She might start worrying and wouldn't be able to go spend a day free of worry.

            "No, I was just kinda hoping to see you when you came out............" I started, but before I could finish, she threw a shoe at me. "Hey!" I said, laughing.

            "See you later Greg," she called out.

            I could still hear her laughing as she walked out the door.

            That's when I noticed how she had gotten her shirt back........she had un-zipped my shorts! DAMN Cristina drives me insane!!!

************************************************************************

            As soon as I was downstairs, I saw Sarah waiting for me.

            "Sarah!" I called out.

            "Cristina! It's great to see you again!" she replied as I walked up to her.

            "Ready to have a stress-free day?" I asked her, smiling.

            "I am. But can you handle a day without stress?" Sarah replied, laughing.

            "Oh yeah! I've been waiting for a stress-free day all week!"

            "Let's go then Cristina!"

************************************************************************

            "Well, now that Cristina's out for the day, what am I going to do?" I asked myself as I sat on a couch in front of my giant t.v. set.

            A sharp pain shot through my back suddenly.

            "Damn that hurt!" I yelled, jumping up.

            Rubbing my back didn't help any.

            "Maybe some more sleep will do me some good," I said to myself, walking back toward my room.

************************************************************************

            "Greg? Greg, wake up."

            "He's a deep sleeper isn't he?"

            "Seems that way. I have an idea though."

            "What is it?"

            "Watch. Greg..........it's me, Cristina. I bought some liquid latex for you."

            The next thing I knew, Greg was sitting straight up in his bed, looking around.

            "You did?! Where is it?!" he asked me, not seeing Sarah there with me.

            Sarah and I started laughing so hard we began to cry. Greg just looked at us, finally noticing that someone else was with me.

            "Greg, I'd like you to meet Sarah," I said, still laughing.

            "Hi," they said in unison.

            "That was a nasty little trick you played just now Cris," Greg added as we continued to laugh.

            "I know, but I got you up, didn't I?" I replied.

            "Yeah. Very disappointing though," Greg said.

            "Get over it. I think that you can wait until work to see any latex, right?" I said, still slightly giggling.

            "Yeah, that's true. So what are you two doing back here?" Greg asked us.

            "You must have gone back to sleep after I left. It's almost seven in the evening Sleepy."

            "Wow. I guess I was still tired."

            "Well, you might want to get ready if we're going to catch that movie at 8," Sarah said to Greg.

            Greg just looked at us.

            "I do believe that means Greg wants us to leave his room so he can get ready," I said, grabbing Sarah's arm and pulling her out of Greg's room, closing the door behind me.

************************************************************************

            Thirty minutes later I was ready. I walked out of my room and joined the girls who were waiting for me.

            "Took you long enough," Cristina said to me as I walked their way.

            "Can we leave now? We don't have a lot of time to get there," Sarah said to us.

            "Yeah, let's go enjoy ourselves," I said, putting an arm around Cristina's waist as we walked out the door.

************************************************************************

            "I had an awesome time today Sarah," Cristina called out as she and I got out of Sarah's car after the movie.

            "Me too. We should do this more often," she replied.

            "I'll call you sometime this week," Cristina added.

            "Till then!" Sarah said before driving off.

            Cristina and I stood there until we could no longer see her car. Then we turned and went inside.

            I was feeling a little stiff. And of course Cristina noticed.

            "Greg? Why are you walking like someone tied a board to your back?" she asked me as we entered my apartment.

            I couldn't hide it from her anymore. So I decided to tell her.

            "My back hurts again. That's it," I replied quietly, continuing to walk to my room.

            Cristina followed me, though she didn't say a word. I was afraid to know what she might be thinking. I hope she didn't think I was weak or something.

            Reaching my room, she followed me in, closing the door and locking it behind her.

            Still standing in front of my locked bedroom door, Cristina spoke finally: "Greg. I know that's not all. There's more to it than the fact your back hurts. I'm not leaving your room until you tell me what's wrong.

            After she said that, she sat down on my bed, still staring at me. I turned around to face her. The look of concern in her eyes in the dim light finally got to me.

            "Alright, I guess I'll tell her now. Otherwise she'll be waiting in here forever," I thought to myself.

            I walked over toward the door, but I flicked on the lights instead, causing both of us to squint briefly.

            "Cristina, remember when I told you about the lab explosion?" I asked, standing in front of her now.

            "Yes. And I also remember that you were in it."

            "Well, there's something I didn't tell you about it," I said.

            "What do you mean?" Cristina asked me.

            I took my shirt off. Cristina just stared at me.

            "Greg, I already know that you have a very sexy, well built-chest and all that, but what does that have to do with..........."

            I turned around so she could see my back before she could finish speaking. A brief moment of silence followed. Then Cristina spoke again.

            "Oh my God........Greg........" I heard Cristina say from behind me.

            She was probably regretting the fact that she had asked me what was wrong.

            But I soon felt her gentle fingers tracing over some of the scars on my back. I tensed up. Feeling me tense up, she quickly pulled her hands away.

            "Oh Greg, I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm so sorry!" Cristina said from behind me.

            Oh God, she thinks that she hurt me. I turned around to face her. She was crying.

            Putting my hands around her waist, I said, "Cristina, you didn't hurt me at all. It's just that it hurts to have the scars on my back touched or have too much pressure put on. That's why you never see me sitting back in chairs or lying on my back in bed or on the couch or floor."

            She put her head against my chest and cried a little more. I just held her to me. She cares so much about me. And I care so much about her.

            "Greg, I wish that it had never happened to you," Cristina said.

            "But it did. There's nothing you can do about it. Please don't cry for me," I replied, looking down at her as she looked up at me, our eyes meeting.

            "There is one thing I can try for you," she said to me as she pulled away.

            "What do you mean?" I asked.

            I really had no idea what she was talking about.

            "I need to go get some things. I'll show you when I get back," she replied as I wiped the tears from her face.

            She managed a smile for me. Ok, now I was really wondering what she had in mind.

            "I guess you'll want my keys then?" I said, pulling them out of a back pocket of my shorts and handing them to her.

            "Thanks Greg. Why don't you just relax till I get back?" she said, unlocking my door and opening it.

            "Uh, yeah, that would probably be good," I replied, sitting down on my bed, watching her as she walked out of my room.

            I heard her leave a few minutes later. I grabbed my shirt off the floor and put it back on. God only knows what Cristina went off to get.

************************************************************************

            Poor Greg. I had no idea that he had scars like that. Reminds me of what my own back looked like after the FBI lab explosion. Damn feds.

            Thankfully though, I do have an idea as to how I can help Greg. It worked for me, so it should work just as well for him.

            I drove up to the nearest store, went inside, bought everything I needed, and drove back to Greg's apartment.

            "Greg?" I called out.

            "Yeah?"

            "Do you have a fairly small bowl or something I can use?" I asked him.

            "Uh, yeah. You'll have to search around for it, but I have something," Greg replied.

            Greg obviously wasn't about to ask what I was doing. Which was good; I really wasn't sure how to explain this to him.

            I took everything I bought out of the bag.

************************************************************************

            "What the hell is Cristina doing out there?" I asked myself.

************************************************************************

            I walked back to Greg's room, carrying the bowl in one hand.

            "Greg?" I said as I walked into his room, closing the door behind me.

            He had a lamp turned on, enough to light up the room, but not enough to make you squint.

            "Yeah?" he replied, sitting on an edge of his bed now, facing me.

            I placed the bowl on a dresser behind me. I walked closer to him, so I was able to see the deep brown of his eyes.

            "You and I have something else in common," I said.

            "What do you mean?" he asked in reply.

            I knew I wouldn't be able to hide this part of the FBI lab accident much longer.

            I took my shirt off in front of him. I was then standing in front of him wearing my bra and shorts. He wasn't expecting me to do that. I definitely surprised him.

            But before he could say anything, I turned around so that he could see what my own back looked like.

            I heard him come up behind me, wanting to get a better look.

            "You do know what I feel like," Greg whispered, touching the few remaining scars on my back as though trying to prove them fake. "Did this happen in the explosion from your lab?" he asked.

            "Yes. It was a lot worse when they finished removing all of the shrapnel. I was terrified about having scars cover my back for life."

            "What did you do? There's barely any here," Greg said to me as I turned around, looking up into those handsome brown eyes of his.

            I could have died right there looking into those eyes of his.

            "Well, that's what I was getting ready to share with you. I have a family recipe I guess you could call it. But it's used to heal scars and stop the pain. I used it on myself for three months after I was released from the hospital. I stopped using it after I realized my deepest scars would never completely disappear. So I knew this would help you," I replied, reaching for the bottom of Greg's shirt while I continued to stare into his deep eyes.

            After what I had just told him, he wasn't about to resist me. Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, I slowly pulled it off, tossing it onto my own which lay on the floor.

            We just stood there for a few minutes, just kind of staring at each other. I finally said something.

            "Greg? It would greatly help if you were to lie down on your bed, otherwise this is useless," I said, putting my hands into Greg's and walking over to his bed with him.

            Letting go of my hands, he laid down on his stomach on his bed, allowing me to have access to his back. That would be when I got a better look at what had happened to him.

            "I'll be right back Greg. I need to get a few more things," I said as I stood up and walked over to the door.

            "Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere," Greg replied.

            I smiled, opened the door, and walked over to my own room.

************************************************************************

            I had no idea what Cristina went to get. She can be pretty confusing. But then again, aren't all girls?

            I tried to think of what Cristina saw that made her go to get whatever else it was she was getting. I knew I still had a few burns, she may not have noticed those before. But I didn't think that was it.

            She walked back into my room before I could finish thinking. She closed and locked the door before walking back over to me.

            "Oh God..........why did she lock the door? And what did she just pull out of her back pocket?" I asked myself as she sat down on an edge of my bed, putting that bowl of something next to her.

            Smirking, Cristina said to me, "Greg, you uh, you have some stitches in your back. Shouldn't they have come out a while ago?"

            I knew I had been forgetting something. I bet would Cristina find it to be slightly funny when I tell her what the deal was.

            "Yeah, they should have come out about three weeks ago, but I didn't want to go back to the hospital; I had spent enough time there already," I replied.

            "So what, you were expecting them to just come out by themselves?" she asked me, laughing.

            "I'm not really sure what I was thinking," I replied, giving her a small smile.

            "Well, they have got to go. They can't stay in forever," Cristina said, sitting on the back of my waist with her legs straddled.

            Ok, she wasn't really sitting on the back of my waist. She almost was, but I think she was afraid of hurting me. I could still feel her back there.

            "So what do you have in mind?" I asked her nervously.

            "I'm going to remove them."

            "Oh............WHAT?!"

************************************************************************

            Greg wasn't too thrilled about having me remove the stitches from his back. I assured him that I had done that before. Just in case he decided to run, I had locked his door.

            I just didn't mention that the last time I had removed them I was 12 and I was being watched by my mom. Oh yeah, did I mention that I was removing them from my guinea pig's back a week after he had surgery?

            Yeah, that would have been a very bad thing to tell Greg at the time. Maybe I'll tell him one day, see what his reaction is.

            I was kind of hovering over Greg's back now, holding the surgical scissors in my right hand. They work really well too; got them when I was 14. I use them for cross-stitching, but yeah........anyway.

            "My suggestion to you is to not move. No matter what I do, don't move Greg," I said as quietly and calmly as I could.

            Truth was, even I was a little scared to do this. I counted the number of stitches I had to remove: 16. Not a bad number. The fewer, the better.

            I gently put my left hand down on Greg's back, causing him to slightly arch up under me.

            "Didn't I tell you not to move?" I said, laughing a little.

            "Yeah, sorry," Greg replied, relaxing a little now.

            I had all 16 stitches out of his back in under ten minutes. I probably could have done them all in less time, but I was so afraid that I would hurt him, I wasn't about to rush myself. I only got a few whimpers from Greg when I pulled on the stubborn ones.

            "Amazing," I said to him.

            "What is?" he asked as he turned his head to see me.

            "All I did was take out 16 stitches and your back already looks a little better," I replied, smiling at him.

            Greg returned my smile.

            "Now you may not like what I'm about to do. I didn't at first, but it really does help," I said to him, picking up the bowl filled with my mixture.

            "Is it going to sting?" Greg asked me.

            That was so cute! He sounded like a little kid. But I couldn't lie. Besides, he'd find out soon enough.

            "Yeah, it will sting a good bit. But after a while you get used to it," I replied as I put my hands into the bowl.

            Greg took that as a hint to turn his head back around and put it on his pillow.

            With the warm substance on my hands, I gently put my hands on his back, causing Greg to arch up under me, the pain from the stinging making him scream out.

            I didn't stop though. I couldn't. I used my hands to push him back down. Now I was actually sitting on the back of his waist; I didn't want him arching up again.

            I continued to put more of the substance on my hands, rubbing it all over Greg's back.

            Greg continued to let out whimpers and small screams from the pain.

            I had tears in my eyes from doing this. I was hurting Greg, yet I was trying to help him.

            As much as I tried to pull my hands away and stop his screams, I couldn't. I tried as hard as I could, but something inside of me said to keep going.

            I mean, I was touching a guy like I never had before. That would be because I hadn't before. So I couldn't stop.

            I kept running my hands over every scar and every burn, causing Greg to continue letting out screams and whimpers.

            "Don't stop Cristina. You can't. You're helping Greg; don't stop," the voice in my head kept telling me.

            Over the next hour and a half after I had started, I still continued to rub the substance all over Greg's back with my own hands.

************************************************************************

            You have no idea what pain is until you go through everything I've been through. This was nowhere near as bad as the explosion, but it hurt.

            Cristina was trying to help me, but it hurt worse than hell. Whatever it was she was using stung badly.

            Every time I tried to sit up, she pushed me back down, never stopping her work on my back. Plus she was sitting on me, so I couldn't get up to easily without throwing her to the ground, which I did not want to do.

            So I just let the pain continue. I tried to keep my screams and pathetic whimpers under control, but you have no idea how hard that is to do.

            I don't know how Cristina could keep going. Her arms had to be killing her. I bet she was on the verge of collapse. I'm about ready to tell her to just stop and rest.

            There's just one thing stopping me; Cristina's trying to help me. I can't bear to tell her to stop.

            I just don't how much longer she can do this.

************************************************************************

            My hands and arms were screaming at me to stop because they were sore, but I couldn't.

            I couldn't think about myself at all. I was only worried about helping Greg.

            Time had slipped past me. I had been rubbing Greg's scar and burn covered back for almost two hours. I was so tired, I could hardly move.

            Greg was still whimpering and trying to arch up under me when I stopped. I was so tired that the next time he arched up; I collapsed next to him on his bed. Then everything went black.

************************************************************************

A.N.) Am I evil or WHAT?! Do you all hate me for leaving it there? I'm sorry that this chapter was so long and that you all had to wait such a long time, but I'd say this chapter was worth the wait. I do believe this will be my longest chapter ever. I'm afraid I have some bad news for you all: school starts on Monday, so I most likely will not be able to update as much as I usually do. But I will continue writing! Till the next chapter (or if I'm on AIM).......

Salty-Irish-Dog -Yes, the Alamo. I was there when I wrote that part.........knew it would be so funny if I put it in because it makes no sense what-so-ever. Glad I'm not the only person who loves to hear Greg say 'yes'. By the way, my cousin said she is working on the next chapter of her X-Men Evolution fic and she wanted me to tell you that. Hope this chapter was worth the wait!

SaxophoneForensicschic05 – It was quite fun helping you to write part of 'Unknown Partner.' Though I may have gotten a little carried away, hehe. I can't wait to write the next part of it..........I shall have fun! If anyone cares to know what I'm talking about, read it sometime. You're really good, despite what crappy reviewers say about your writing. So don't listen to them, THEY SUCK! Keep those chapters coming!!!

csifan1 – First of all; yes you can put me on your AIM list. I really don't mind at all. Second of all, thank you for the name of the microscope. I studied so many last year that I'm surprised I even remembered the SEM. And about the color of the words 'FORENSICS'; I really can't tell you if they are white or yellow. In some episodes, I see white. In others, I see yellow. Maybe they do that to throw me off.

For everyone – I know some of you have noticed this, but the number of shots fired does go up every time. I plan on explaining that why later.........much later. As for Greg and Cristina getting 'dirty' as some of you may say, it's not time yet. But trust me, I don't know how much longer I can wait to write it because I have some awesome plans for that chapter..........and I won't say what.......you'll all just have to wait till whenever I write it........yes, I am pure evil!


	11. Do We Have To Go Back?

A.N.) I see that everyone enjoyed that last chapter. Quite long wasn't it? Yeah, it wasn't easy writing 20 pages. But I'd say it was worth it. Mostly the ending, but I also think it was funny, well, I thought Greg making breakfast was funny. Anyway, don't expect me to have anymore chapters of that length. And if it takes me a while to post.........what can I say? I'm back in school now, and 10th grade isn't all that easy.

'Quick. Name the three human bones that can withstand a twelve-story drop.'

                                                            -Doc Robbins

So until I have the time to write some more...........

************************************************************************

Chapter 11

*Greg*

            I turned my head to see Cristina after I accidentally threw her off of me. I continued to lie on my stomach, my back still stinging from earlier. As I watched Cristina's heavily breathing body, she just looked so different to me.

            She didn't look as tough and invincible like she is. Just lying there, Cristina looked as weak and defenseless as a little kid. I don't know why, but I felt like I had to protect her.

            I managed to sit up and look at Cristina a little longer before reaching for her and pulling her to me. Lying back down, I felt the soft skin of her back against the skin of my chest.

            As I pulled her as close to me as I could at the time, he long, beautiful hair fell onto my face. I took a deep breath, inhaling the soothing fragrance of the shampoo she uses. Cristina's skin and hair might as well have been one, the silky feel of her hair continuing down to her skin.

            I continued to lay there with Cristina pulled against me, the warmth of her body warming my own. My arms still around her, I felt Cristina shiver against me. I had forgotten that my fan was still on.

            I didn't want to disturb her by getting up and turning it off. Still keeping one arm around her, I reached for the sheets and pulled them up over us. Felling she was safe, I finally fell asleep, Cristina's body still against my own.

************************************************************************

*Cristina*

            I woke up late Sunday night. Ok, it wasn't that late; it was around 8:30 or so.

            I soon realized that I wasn't in my room. I also realized that something warm was around my waist......and I didn't have a shirt on.

            I freaked.

            I quickly sat up; disturbing whatever had been holding me down. In the dim light I saw where I was; I was in Greg's room, in Greg's bed, with Greg now awake next to me.

            I frantically looked around for any shirt to put on, too panicked to notice that I did still have my bra on. Greg was sitting next to me, still trying to figure out what had just happened.

            He finally noticed me looking around like a trapped rat (a.n. lab rat....get it?) and started laughing. I turned and stared at him.

            "Calm down Cristina," Greg said as he put an arm around my waist. "I know what you're thinking, but that didn't happen. You were so exhausted last night that when I tried to sit up, you just fell off of my back. You were out cold too. I was able to move enough to put my arms around your waist and pull you to me. I fell asleep right after that."

            I instantly felt better, now knowing why I was sleeping with Greg and that he would never lie to me. My breathing finally slowing back down, I put my head on Greg's bare shoulder, my cold sweat dripping onto his skin.

            Greg let me lay my head on his shoulder for a while as he gently ran his fingers through my hair. I would have fallen asleep if he hadn't stopped, but he did. I just looked up into his brown eyes.

            Smiling at me, Greg said, "Sorry Cris, but we do have to go to work tonight. Besides, I'm feeling a little stiff right now, so I'll need some time to get ready."

            I helped Greg get up and out of bed. My hand on his back, I felt the now dried substance I had used on Greg's back the night before. I could just imagine what would go through Greg's head after what I was about to tell him.

            "Uh Greg........I need to take a shower with you," I said quietly, blushing as he turned to look at me.

            Greg's mouth was open, but no sound came out. His eyes were wide, whether from surprise or what I don't know. Before he said anything, I explained why I suddenly had said that.

            "That stuff I put on your back is obviously dry now, which explains why you feel so stiff. I need to help you wash it off; otherwise you'll be taking forever. Come on Greg," I said as I pulled Greg toward his bathroom.

            His mouth was still open; eyes still wide. We stopped as we walked into his bathroom. Greg turned and stared at me, not sure what to think. I started to laugh.

            "You still think I mean like that? I'm not ready to go there yet. Just keep your shorts on Greg," I said to him, still laughing as he blushed.

            "Um, right. I knew what you meant.......yeah," Greg replied as he started the shower.

            "Right. I'll be right back. I just need to grab my towel," I said as I walked back to my own room.

            A few minutes later I was back, carrying my towel. It dropped to the floor as Greg grabbed my hand and pulled me into the shower with him.

            We both just stood there in his shower, getting drenched as we looked at each other. Greg finally started laughing.

            "This is really weird Cristina. I mean, I'm standing in my shower, with you, both of us only half dressed. I keep thinking that I'm dreaming," Greg said to me as we continued to stand there.

            "I can prove to you that you aren't dreaming," I said quietly, smiling as I put my arms around Greg's neck.

            "And how's that?" Greg asked in reply, grinning as I moved my face closer to his.

            I didn't keep him waiting very long at all. I pressed my lips into his, pushing him into the wall since I caught him by surprise.

            As Greg moved his hands to my waist, I pulled away from him, holding a bar of soap and a washcloth in my hands. Greg smiled at me.

            "You are one sneaky devil, you know that?" Greg said to me as I grinned.

            "Greg, I've known that for years," I replied, motioning for him to turn around.

            As soon as Greg turned around, I began washing his back, getting no reaction from him. I smiled at myself, knowing that Greg shouldn't be in pain like he was before.

            "Greg?"

            "Yes?"

            "Tell me when you start to feel any pain," I said as I continued to wash his back.

            "Actually, I'm not feeling any pain. I feel really good," Greg mumbled as I pressed the washcloth harder into his back.

            Five minutes later, I was finished washing Greg's back, my hands red from scrubbing. After I put the soap and washcloth back, I ran my hands up and down Greg's back, feeling how much smoother I had made it.

            Greg turned around to face me, taking my hands into his as he did so. I looked up into his handsome brown eyes as he looked into my deep sapphire eyes. He smiled at me.

            "I owe you so much right now," Greg said to me as he brought my hands to his lips and kissed them.

            I giggled as he did so.

            "Greg, you don't owe me anything. I mean, you're letting me live with you and I just plain love you. I hate seeing those I love in so much pain. It's the least that I could do," I replied as I kissed Greg.

            Greg began to wrap his arms around my waist as the phone rang.

            "Damn," we both muttered.

            Greg turned the shower off and we both got out quickly, dripping water everywhere. Greg quickly answered the phone.

            "Sanders."

            "Greg, I need you to call Cristina and get both of you here as soon as possible," Grissom said to Greg over the phone.

            "Why? What happened?" Greg asked.

            "Just do it Greg. I'll explain when both of you get here."

            "Right. I'll leave in a few minutes and get her," Greg replied before he hung up.

            "What was that about?" I asked as I walked out of his bathroom with my towel wrapped around me.

            "I don't know. Grissom just said that he wants us there as soon as possi......" Greg was saying before he noticed me holding my soaking wet clothes in my arms while trying to hold up the towel around me.

            Greg just stood there staring at me, his mouth hanging open. I walked over to him, grinning as he gawked.

            "Calm yourself sweetie," I said to Greg as I tossed my wet clothes at his face, grinning. "Be a good little boy and get ready for work, alright?"

            Greg nodded in agreement as I took my clothes back from him and walked back to my own room, knowing that he was watching me until my door was closed.

************************************************************************

*Greg*

            Damn. Cristina sure knows how to get attention when she wants to. I mean, I already know how beautiful she is, but with that short towel wrapped around her like that.......damn.

            Anyway, I was ready for another week of work soon enough, walking out of my room to wait for Cristina.

            I walked into my living room and sat down on one of my couches. I wasn't waiting too long. Cristina walked out of her room and over to me, still drying her long hair as she walked.

            Cristina sat down next to me, hitting my face with her semi-wet hair. She started to giggle as I gently ran my fingers through her hair.

            "You're so cute Greg," Cristina said to me as I put my head behind her hair and kissed the back of her neck.

            "But you're very sweet Cristina," I mumbled in reply as I continued to kiss her neck, my arms now wrapped around her waist.

            "Greg, as much as I hate to stop you right now, I really think that Griss wants us there soon," Cristina mumbled as she stood up, pulling away from me.

            "I know. I just..........wanted to say thanks," I said to her as I stood, kissing her soft lips gently before taking her hand in my own.

            "Shall we go now?" she asked, laughing as I grabbed my keys.

            "Yeah, Grissom might kill us if we don't get there soon," I replied, both of us laughing as we walked out.

************************************************************************

*Cristina*

            Greg and I finally reached work, going in separate doors to throw off any suspicions. I wish we didn't have to, but Griss doesn't approve of inter-lab relationships. Damn our luck huh?

            Anyway, we met back up in the locker room when my phone rang. Greg jumped and looked at me.

            Did he know something that I didn't?

            "Miltadez," I said, answering my phone.

            "Cristina, it's Warrick. We're waiting for you in the break room," Warrick said to me, hanging up as he finished.

            "Who was that?" Greg asked me nervously.

            Alright, Greg's hiding something from me and I'm gonna find out what. It just has to wait till tonight or some other time since here isn't the best place to talk.

            "Chill Greg, it was just Warrick," I replied as I walked out of the locker room.

            I was in the break room soon enough, taking an empty seat next to Sara.

            "What took you?" Sara whispered to me, grinning.

            "I'd rather not say," I replied, flashing my own grin back.

            "Now that we are all here........." Grissom was saying before Greg skidded into the room.

            "Sorry I'm late, traffic was hell," Greg said, sitting next to Nick and across from me.

            I just rolled my eyes at Greg, making him grin.

            "Right. Like I was saying, now that we are all here, we can discuss the serial we're dealing with," Grissom said to all of us.

            "Cereal? What kind? I didn't think we decided that," Greg said, causing all of us to stare at him.

            Taking one of my shoes off, I threw it at him, hitting him directly in the face.

            "The killer you idiot! Not food, the killer," I said to Greg as I took my shoe back.

            Greg just kept grinning.

            What was with that boy today?

            "Greg, if it weren't for the fact that this involves you, I'd send you back to the lab," Grissom said, causing Greg's grin to fade as he came back to reality.

            "Now that we have everyone's attention, here's the deal; our serial killer called again, this message more threatening than the last. We managed to record this message, same as the last one," Catherine told all of us as she took out a tape player.

            All of us were silent as Catherine played the tape.

            *tape starts*

            *digitally altered voice* "I thought I'd be nice and give all of you the weekend off. But now I'm back. And I know what Miltadez did over the weekend."

            Damn! How could this happen? I thought I'd be safer with Greg, be unknown. How can this murderer know all of this about me when those I work with don't even know I'm staying with Greg?

            Oh shit, it's official now; I have a stalker after me.

            The caller kept going: "But I won't tell because I can use this against her, right Miltadez? I'm sure you all enjoyed my change in plans. I know about the list she wrote, naming all of her guy friends in the order that she met them."

            So then that explains..........

            "So I've changed up my order. Try and stop me now. And one more thing before I go: Better watch your **BACK** Sanders," the caller said, laughing the entire time before the call ended.

            Greg and I looked up at each other, our looks of concern for each other reflecting in our eyes.

            "We'll talk later in the lab," Greg mouthed out to me while everyone else was looking at the tape player.

            I nodded in agreement. What could I say? I was scared to death at that point, knowing that someone was watching my every move.

            "Now that we've all heard that enlightening message, how is everyone today?" Grissom asked.

            He's kidding right?

************************************************************************

A.N.-I know, I know. It's taken me too damn forever to update. Everything that you read in this chapter was written during my 3rd block World History Honors class. THIS IS NOT THE REASON I HAVE AN 86 IN THE CLASS I SWEAR!!!! But anyway, I tried my best to make this chapter worth the wait, which I hope it was. Don't worry, as soon as I finish me Chemistry Honors homework, I'll attempt to get started on Chapter 12.

SaxophoneForensicschic05- Look! I updated! Yay! Now it's your turn to update. Kidding. But please do update when you can. I'll be talking to you soon.

Salty-Irish-Dog – I updated!!! This is cause for celebration, is it not? I think it was quite interesting to write during class AND pay attention. I must focus more on Spanish 3 though.......

To my reviewer who's name changes with their emotions- I finally updated. Don't worry, I worked hard to make it long enough to be called good. I'm sorry it took so long, but the 10th grade isn't all that easy like the 9th grade was.

To EVERYONE – If for some reason you decide to stop reading this, you'll be missing out on something.......I have a little trick up my sleeve. It's called a sequel and damn does it rock! Ok, it's in the form of a script right now, but as soon as I finish this one, I'll turn that script into the sequel called 'Deadly Love'. Oops, did I say too much? :p


	12. Help Me

**A.N.)** Glad to see some of you are still with me even though it took me forever to update. It's also nice to see new readers, so hello! I'm working my hardest to get chapters done. School's keeping me beyond busy with homework, chapters in textbooks to read, and then Chorus concerts to perform and helping Show Choir. Ok, now the part about Chorus and Show Choir I love. Anyway, just be patient. I make it worth the wait right?

'We're the number-two crime lab in the country. We solve crimes most labs render unsolvable. So what makes you think you belong here?'

                                                            -Captain Jim Brass

Chapter 12 coming up!

************************************************************************

Chapter 12

*Cristina*

            "I can't believe this," I said, sitting next to Greg in DNA.

            The two of us were sitting in DNA, waiting as the others discussed what to do with the case now.

            "I should be in there discussing the case with them!" I exclaimed, jumping off my seat and walking to the door.

            I stopped where I was when Greg grabbed my wrist, pulling me to him.

            "Shhhh. Calm down Cristina," Greg said to me softly, holding me against him. "They knew you'd react like this. Besides, I need to talk to you about something."

            I just stood there, anger and sadness building inside of me as Greg pulled up our seats. I sat down as Greg sat in front of me.

            "I was meaning to tell you all weekend about something," Greg said, looking around to makes sure no one was within earshot.

            "What do you mean? Did something happen?" I asked him, getting the feeling he was going to tell me something bad.

            "Well," Greg started, taking a deep breath and sighing, "remember when you were in the shower Saturday morning and I went into your room to wait for you?"

            I nodded. How could I forget that? I didn't know whether to hurt him or laugh it off that morning.

            "While I was waiting, your cell phone rang, so I answered it. The call wasn't for you.........it was for me," he continued.

            I was speechless. My stalker had found him. They knew that Greg and I were living together.

            Greg confirmed it too.

            "Cristina, your stalker knows about us. Neither of us is safe now. But we will find the killer. I swear my life that I won't let anyone hurt you," Greg told me, taking my hands and putting his forehead against mine.

            He quickly pulled away though.

            "Cristina? Are you feeling ok?" he asked me, feeling my forehead with his hand. "You're quite hot right now."

            I hadn't told him because I knew he'd worry about me, but I hadn't been feeling like myself since the night before. I figured I was just coming down with a cold or something.

            I didn't think much of it though. Throughout high school, I'd get sinus infections every few months. In the 9th grade alone, I had 4 sinus infections in fewer than 3 months. But I really didn't feel well at all now. I'd never felt this bad ever before.

            "I'm fine Greg. Really. This case just has me really worked up," I lied, not wanting him to worry about me.

            I gave him a look that went along with my lie. Greg can be too sweet to me sometimes.

            "I know what you mean. Just tell me if it gets to be too much for you," Greg replied, falling for my lie.

            I really hated having to lie to him, but I had to.

            "Can we go see if they're ready for us?" I asked Greg, changing the subject.

            "I guess we could. They might have forgotten that we're back here waiting," Greg replied, standing.

            I almost fell backwards as I stood. Greg was behind me and caught me before I fell.

            "Cristina, are you sure you're ok?" he asked me again.

            "I swear I am Greg. I just lost my balance for a second," I lied.

            It was a flat out lie too. I was suddenly quite dizzy, the room seeming to spin around me. But I managed to stand and act as though nothing was wrong.

            Greg gave me his concerned mother look. I just smiled and walked out the door with him.

            We were about halfway to the break room when I started to feel even worse. I started to walk far behind him, trying my hardest to just stay on my feet. I made my way over to the wall, holding on to it to keep my balance.

            Greg stopped walking and turned around to see me clutching to a corner.

            "Cristina?" Greg said, walking toward me.

            His voice seemed so far away from me. I finally let go of the wall, sliding down onto the floor, seeing Greg rushing to me as the world went dark.

************************************************************************

*Greg*

            I was in a panic. Cristina had just collapsed onto the floor in front of me. Damn it! I knew she wasn't feeling well! But I just kept telling myself it was nothing, just as she told me. Now look at her.

            "Cristina? Can you hear me?" I asked her quietly, hoping that maybe this wouldn't last.

            She didn't answer.

            I looked around to make sure no one saw us. But then again, someone would have rushed out here to help if they had seen her fall.

            I carefully brought Cristina to her feet, putting one of her arms around my neck as I started to walk to the locker room with her.

            Ok, it was more like I was walking and she was being dragged in a way, but you get the idea. I went slowly; making sure no one saw us still.

            I finally made it to the locker room with Cristina still out cold. I took her over to the most isolated corner in there, making sure no one would see us if they were to walk in there.

            I sat her down against the corner so she could lean up against it. I went and got a paper towel, soaking it with the coldest water I could. I came back to her and laid her down with her head in my lap. I then put the towel across her forehead, trying to keep her cool at least a little.

            I sat there with her a little while. I guess it was about ten minutes later when Cristina finally started to come around.

            Cristina's beautiful sapphire blue eyes slowly fluttered open and stared up at me.

            "Greg? Where am I?" she asked me quietly, still with her head in my lap.

            "We're in the locker room. You passed out in the hallway and I brought you in here," I replied softly, sitting her up but allowing her head to rest on my shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me before that you didn't feel well?"

            "Because I knew that you would worry about me," she replied softly.

            What can I say? It was true. Just look at me right now.

            "Yes I would have. But it would have been better for me to worry about you at home instead of here," I said.

            "Alright. I give in. Next time I'll tell you when I feel like shit. But for now, can I go home?" she asked me, putting her head against my chest as she started to drift off again.

            I lifted her head up with my hands so that I was looking into her eyes. Well, while her eyes were open at least. She reminded me of a drunk oddly enough.

            "Cristina, do you think you can stay with me long enough for us to get to my car?" I asked her quietly, trying to keep her awake.

            "I........I think so. I'll try to Greg," Cristina replied softly as she fought to keep her eyes open.

            I could tell she was getting worse and I had to get her home. I helped her back onto her feet slowly, bringing one of her arms around my neck.

            We started out to my car slowly, Cristina having a hard time just standing. But we finally made it. I opened one of the back doors and helped her in, buckling her in after she had lied down.

            I hopped into the front and we were out of there in no time. I drove as quickly as I could and not risk being pulled over.

            We finally made it to the parking lot of my apartment. Soon enough I was helping her to the door of my apartment.

            "Just another minute and we'll be inside Cristina," I said to her quietly as I unlocked the door.

            She just nodded slowly at me.

            I finally opened my door and walked in. I was about to help Cristina in when I heard a thud behind me. I turned to see Cristina sprawled on the floor in the doorway, unconscious.

            "Cristina!" I called out, rushing to her.

            I was really scared now. I slipped my arms under hers and pulled her inside my apartment, closing the door behind me.

            I laid her back down on the floor, rolling her over so she was on her back. I sat there on my floor with her pulled against me, hoping that her limp body would suddenly become heavier as she awoke.

            But she didn't. I buried my face in her long, thick hair, sobbing a little as I asked myself what the hell was wrong with her.

            I don't know how long I sat there with her pulled up against me, but I finally heard faint moans coming from her. I pulled my head away from hers and began stroking her hair gently, quietly talking to her in hopes she would wake.

            "Cristina, we're home. Please wake up baby. I need to know what's wrong so I can help you," I said to her in a whisper.

            As though my words were all it took, her eyes slowly opened, sapphires looking straight up at me.

            "How are you feeling?" I asked her quietly.

            "Like shit," she replied softly, grinning a little.

            Well, at least she still had her sense of humor.

            "Can you tell me how you feel?" I asked her, hoping that then maybe I could help her.

            "I feel like I'm in the middle of the desert without water and I'm tied down. My eyes are dry and sting, I feel like someone's sitting on my chest, my entire body hurts. I feel like someone's suffocating me," Cristina replied quietly, straining her voice so I could hear her.

            "Shhhh. That's all I needed to know sweetie," I said to her softly, putting a finger to her lips to keep her quiet.

            She nodded slowly.

            "I know you don't have much energy left right now, but you need to help me get you to your room ok?" I said quietly, looking down at her.

            "Ok," she replied quietly.

            I helped her get to her feet again, wrapping her arms around my neck as I walked us back to her room.

            I opened the door to her room, leaving the lights off so her eyes wouldn't hurt any more than they already did. I then brought her over to her bed, helping her to lie down.

            I sat down next to her on her bed, taking her shoes and socks off for her. I unbuttoned her jean jacket, sliding it off of her and tossing it onto the nearest chair, revealing her tight fitting dark blue tank-top. She started shivering, so I pulled the sheets over her and took her hands. She felt so warm, yet I knew she was feeling so cold.

            I brought her hands to my face, kissing them as she looked at me. I leaned in closer to her, gently stroking her head as I looked down at her.

            "Try and get some sleep Cristina. I'll try and find something that might make you feel better," I told her quietly, still stroking her head.

            She nodded slowly in agreement and closed her eyes, soon falling asleep. I slowly got up off the bed and left her room, closing the door quietly behind me.

            I walked into the kitchen, sitting down at the table after I had gotten myself a glass of water.

            "Damn it. Griss and the others are probably wondering where the hell we are and I'm here with Cristina who most likely has the flu. Guess I should be grateful I got my flu shot a little more than three weeks ago," I said to myself, looking at the almost nothing bruise left on my arm where I had gotten my shot.

            I knew that I wouldn't be getting what she had, but right now I had to find a way to help her get over it.

            But first I had to let the others know where we were at. So I picked up my phone and tried to decide who to call. I finally decided on Catherine. Maybe she could help me.

            So I dialed her number, hoping that she would answer quickly.

            "Willows," Catherine answered.

            "Cath, it's Greg," I said.

            "Greg? Where the hell are you?! And where's Cristina?" she asked me.

            "Cath. There's a problem," I told her.

            "What? What problem?" Cath asked before I could explain.

            "Cristina and I aren't there right now because I took her home. She was feeling like shit and she passed out in the locker room. So right now I'm at her place with her. I don't know what to do right now because I think she has the flu," I said, speaking quickly before Catherine could cut me off.

            But she didn't. Actually, she was quiet for a few seconds after that.

            "Cath? You still there?" I asked.

            "Yeah, I'm still here Greg," she replied, her tone softer now.

            "What should I do?" I asked Cath.

            "Does she have anyone that could take care of her? A boyfriend or family maybe?" she asked me.

            I almost laughed. I am her boyfriend.

            "She's got family. But........"

            "But what Greg?"

            "Let's put it this way; east coast," I replied, knowing that I'd probably end up taking care of her.

            "Damn. That won't work too well," Catherine said.

            "So what do I do then? I can't just leave her here alone," I said to her.

            "I'm well aware that you can't leave her alone, not if she's this sick. I'll go talk to Grissom about what we should do now, but stay there with Cristina. As soon as Griss tells me what you should do, I'll give you a call. Until then, just do your best to keep her well hydrated alright?" Cath said to me.

            "Right. Just call me back as soon as you can," I replied, getting ready to hang up. "And thanks Cath."

            "It's no problem Greg. She's part of our CSI family now and we take care of each other. You know that. I'll talk to you later."

            And with that, she hung up. I too hung up, placing my phone onto the table and taking a sip of water.

            I already knew that I'd have to keep Cristina hydrated, but how could I right now if she can't even keep her eyes open? Besides, even I knew that the best thing for her now was rest.

            Picking up my glass of water, I walked over to one of my couches and sat down, flipping on the t.v. I sat there watching Trading Spaces as Cristina slept in her room, peacefully I hoped.

            I kept sitting there, watching t.v. while waiting for Catherine to call me back when I heard something. I muted the t.v. and listened for the noise again.

            It sounded like someone yelling, or at least trying to. I got up and started walking around, thinking I might be able to find the direction it was coming from.

            As I walked past Cristina's room, I noticed the yelling was coming from her room. Without thinking about it another second, I opened the door to her room and walked in.

            When I did so, I saw Cristina thrashing around in her bed, shouting as she did so. I rushed over to her, grabbing her wrists to try and wake her up, but she nailed my chin with her fist she was fighting me so much.

            I let go of her, falling backwards onto the floor. That's when she started screaming again.

            "NO! DAMN IT! THE LAST ONE BLEW ON ME AND YOU SEE WHERE I ENDED UP! GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT!" she shouted.

            Getting to my feet, I tried once again to stop her thrashing. I got onto her bed and pinned her down, wrapping my legs around hers to keep her from kicking me and holding her arms down so she couldn't hit me.

            "Cristina! It's me, Greg! Wake up!" I shouted as she still struggled under my weight.

            She suddenly woke up, her eyes snapping open as she stopped struggling. She stared at me, breathing hard from her struggle.

            "Cristina, if I let go of you, will you stop thrashing around?" I asked her quietly, loosening my grip on her wrists.

            She nodded slowly and I got off of her, sitting right next to her on the other side of her bed. Cristina tried to sit up, so I helped her, pulling her against me and holding her in my arms.

            "I heard you screaming so I came in here to see what was wrong. You were thrashing around and yelling, so I tried to wake you up. When I did, you hit me. So I had to hold you down so you wouldn't hurt me or yourself," I said to her quietly, stroking her head gently.

            "I'm sorry I hit you. I.........I thought that I was working with the FBI again and they gave me another pipe bomb to analyze. I was scared Greg. The pipe bomb I had looked at before almost killed me. I thought that this was all real and that I was going to die," she said ever so quietly, breaking down into tears as she spoke.

            I pulled her even closer to my body, letting her cry against my chest. I kept stroking her head, speaking softly to her.

            "Go ahead and cry sweetie. You will never work for the FBI again. I won't let anyone hurt you. You are mine and I am yours. We take care of each other. No one will ever separate us Cristina. I love you," I told her as she sobbed against my chest.

            I just sat there and let her cry; knowing that talking to me would make her feel better, if even just a little. I started to get drowsy, the heat from her body and the steady sound of her sobs causing me to doze off.

            Before too long, we were both sound asleep.

************************************************************************

**A.N.)** Yeah yeah yeah. I know it wasn't as long as usual, but I really wanted to get this one up soon, preferably before Christmas. I'm now on Winter Break so I should have time to put out another chapter or two before we go back in January. You might be wondering why I made Cristina get sick. Well, when I started writing this chapter, I was feeling like shit. Yup, I was getting sick. So I decided to make her get the flu cuz it's going around. Don't worry, I don't have the flu. I just had the beginning of a sinus infection but we caught it in time so I just had a bad cough for a week. Yeah, it sucks like shit and that's how I felt, so I figured that's how she should be.

Anyway, as always please read and review! I'll try to update soon! (By the way, when I started this chapter I was still 15. Hehe, I'm 16 now. ^_^)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año! And happy or merry whatever else is celebrated out there!


End file.
